As a youngster I just loved the books by Nevile Shute - he was just such a wonderful storyteller. It was the novel 'A Town Like Alice' where I first came across the amazing story of European women who had been captured during the Second World War, and because the Japanese didn't know what to do with them, simply marched them, often for years.
Then in the early 1980's I became addicted to the TV series 'Tenko' which told the story of women who had lived in Singapore, often with very comfortable lifestyles, until the colony was suddenly over run by the Japanese during the Second World War. They marched, and eventually settled in a rough POW camp, suffering awful deprevation. (Recently I saw a repeat of one of these programmes, and was amazed at how harrowing it was!)
I then read 'Women Beyond the Wire' by Lavinia Warner and John Sandilands, and it is from their extensive research for this book that they went on to create Tenko. It certainly makes for fascinating reading.
By now I was determined to write a novel aimed at boys aged 9 - 12 who think reading's boring, but set in this strange environment. I wanted to see the women's imprisonment through the eyes of a child, who spends his formative early years as a Prisoner of War.
In my story the last guard has just died, and the women decide to just try and sit out the war. As 10-year old Lawrence is the oldest boy in the group he is the one assigned to learn to fish with the help of the locals. The health of the entire group depends of his skill.
Having lost his mother and baby brother when they are evacuated from Singapore, Lawrence has difficulties forming close relationships, but increasingly he decides what he really wants is a pet monkey. After all you might be able to train the monkey to fetch and carry, just like a dog. And who knows what adventures might befall the pair!
Little does he realise that his somewhat foolhardy actions put the entire group at risk.
To read this novel just click
here
By now I was determined to write a novel aimed at boys aged 9 - 12 who think reading's boring, but set in this strange environment. I wanted to see the women's imprisonment through the eyes of a child, who spends his formative early years as a Prisoner of War.
In my story the last guard has just died, and the women decide to just try and sit out the war. As 10-year old Lawrence is the oldest boy in the group he is the one assigned to learn to fish with the help of the locals. The health of the entire group depends of his skill.
Having lost his mother and baby brother when they are evacuated from Singapore, Lawrence has difficulties forming close relationships, but increasingly he decides what he really wants is a pet monkey. After all you might be able to train the monkey to fetch and carry, just like a dog. And who knows what adventures might befall the pair!
Little does he realise that his somewhat foolhardy actions put the entire group at risk.
To read this novel just click
here
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