Taken prisoner in 1942 at the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese, Captain Horner kept a diary for the next three years of his experiences in the India Lines, the infamous Changi Gaol and on the Burma Railroad. Its discovery would mean certain death. This remarkable journal, with its lovely and amusing cartoons and drawings, is as life-affirming a document as you can find.
Despite illness and with death an everyday occurrence, Captain Ronald Horner took part in countless theatrical productions during his incarceration by the Japanese in World War II, designed to raise morale and bring some sense of normality, or illusion of normality, amidst the horrors of starvation, disease and brutality. The famous cartoonist Ronald Searle was a fellow PoW and some of the drawings here are by him. They both survived the ordeal; and so did Ronald Horner's diary, hidden in the false bottom of a suitcase.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 240 mm
Breite: 170 mm
Dicke: 20 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-86227-430-3 (9781862274303)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Ronald Horner was born in St Albans, Herts. He was called up in February 1940 and disembarked in Singapore in January 1942 and became a POW at the capitulation on 15 February. He was initially in India Lines Changi, proceeded to Thailand on loan to Japanese Thailand Administration and returned to Singapore on completion of the railway, first to Sime Road and latterly to Changi Gaol. He returned to the UK in 1945. His main interests were cricket, rugby, and charitable works.