Awards

• Winner of AT & T Non-Fiction Award 1996
• Winner of AT & T Non-Fiction Award 1996.
• Winner of Esquire/Apple/Waterstone Non-Fiction Award 1995.
• Winner of J.R. Ackerley Prize 1996
• Winner of J.R. Ackerley Prize 1996.
• Winner of Joe Ackerley Prize 1996.
• Winner of NCR Book Award 1996.

Overview

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9780099582311

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Reviews

A profound and beautifully written story...one of the most moving accounts to have come out of the Second World War Sunday Times This book has to be read Independent This beautiful, awkward book tells the story of a fine and awkward man. Here, I think, is an account that rises above mere timeliness and comes near to being a classic of autobiography -- Ian Jack Guardian A powerful memoir placing his wartime experience in the context of his whole life... It prompted other former Japanese prisoners to write from all around the world Daily Telegraph An extraordinary story... I turned the last page weepihng tears of sorrow, pride and gratitude -- John McCarthy

A profound and beautifully written story...one of the most moving accounts to have come out of the Second World War Sunday Times This book has to be read Independent This beautiful, awkward book tells the story of a fine and awkward man. Here, I think, is an account that rises above mere timeliness and comes near to being a classic of autobiography -- Ian Jack Guardian

A profound and beautifully written story...one of the most moving accounts to have come out of the Second World War Sunday Times As a personal story, I don't know how to estimate the kind of courage that (Eric Lomax) displayed...I had a very strong feeling that perhaps it was time this story was told -- Colin Firth Today programme, Radio 4 This book has to be read Independent This beautiful, awkward book tells the story of a fine and awkward man. Here, I think, is an account that rises above mere timeliness and comes near to being a classic of autobiography -- Ian Jack Guardian A powerful memoir placing his wartime experience in the context of his whole life... It prompted other former Japanese prisoners to write from all around the world Daily Telegraph

For reasons I don't understand myself, I've always been drawn towards books about both world wars and especially accounts of experiences in prison camps. There is something about the nature of being imprisoned in such circumstances - I'm equally addicted to all the hostage stories - which fascinates as well as horrifies me. It's not the details of any brutality or physical suffering which I find compelling but the mental and emotional reactions of the prisoners - how do they survive? And do they survive in any real sense? This book addresses both questions and answers them more completely than any I have ever read. It is most eloquently written - smooth, clear, with the anger which fuels it controlled to such a remarkable degree that it is mistaken at first for detachment. But Eric Lomax is not detached from the horrors inflicted upon him. Instead, he has absorbed them, at last, after for so long being ruinously absorbed by them. A staggeringly compelling and moving book. Review by author MARGARET FORSTER Editor's note: Margaret Forster is the author of many books, including The Memory Box. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Eric Lomax was born in 1919. During the Second World War he was captured and tortured by the Japanese Army and forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam railway. He met and forgave his torturer in 1995. Eric Lomax died in October 2012.

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