Surviving The Sword

Brian MacArthur has made a significant contribution to the literature of the war in the Far East, which is still much less known to us than the matching struggle in Europe - SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

MacArthur does justice to these men. He lays bare the horrors, so awful that, reading of them, one is amazed that there were any survivors. But he also pays tribute to the courage the vast majority showed in their determination not to die, and especially to the work of their doctors and medical staff, improvising ways of carrying out operations in appalling conditions. Excerpts from the diaries that some of them managed to keep make you realise that the Japanese camps, like the Nazi death camps, were all that we have imagined of ell translated to the surface of the Earth and made reality. There are pages of this book that will bring tears to your eyes, tears evoked by horror pity and often admiration - Allan Massie, TIMES

Commendably, in this first essay into military history, he has allowed the voices of these veterans of the Far East Prisoners of War Association to speak to us directly across the 60-year void; they echo from the mouth of a tropical hell with an awful eloquence…a deeply moving read - John Crossland, SUNDAY TIMES

Brian MacArthur s compelling story of the extraordinary suffering of British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of the Japanese provides excruciating detail…the capacity of men to inflict misery on each other is almost balanced by their ability to find little pleasures in the most terrible of circumstances - TLS