Torres, TereskaWomen's BarracksFiction / Gay Literature. Originally published in 1950, this account of life among female Free French soldiers in a London barracks during World War II sold four million copies in the United States alone and many more millions worldwide. The novel is based on the real-life experiences of the author, Tereska Torres, who escaped from occupied France. She arrived as a refugee in London and joined other exiles enlisting in Charles de Gaulle's army, then stationed in Britain awaiting an invasion of their homeland by Allied forces. Despite a tone that is frank rather than lurid, WOMEN'S BARRACKS was banned for obscenity in several states. But despite such efforts-or perhaps, in part, because of them-the novel became a record-breaking bestseller and inspired a whole new genre: lesbian pulp.