| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings 1939 - 1945 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Craig Brown, 'Mail on Sunday'
You would have a struggle to name a greater cartoonist of the 20th Century, or, indeed, of any other century.
Product Description
In 1939, as an art student, Ronald Searle volunteered for the army, called up in September he embarked for Singapore in 1941. Within a month of his arrival there, he was a prisoner of the Japanese. After fourteen months in a prisoner-of-war camp Ronald Searle was sent north, to work camp on the Burma Star. In May 1944 he was sent to the notorious Changi Gaol in Singapore and was one of the few British soldiers to survive imprisonment there. Throughout his captivity, despite the risk, Ronald Searle made drawings, determinded to record his experiences. He drew his fellow prisoners, and their Japanese guards; he recorded historic moments, the Japanese triumphantly entering Singapore, the planes dropping leaflets that announced the end of the war. The drawings in this remarkable book were hidden by Searle, and smuggled from place to place, stained with the sweat and dirt of his captivity. They are a record of one man's war, and are among the most important, and moving, accounts of the Second World War. They document the sacrifice of those who served in the Far East and are testimony to Ronald Searle's unique talent.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Many things make this book extraordinary. Searle's amazing stamina to survive when overworked by the Japanese on the Kwai Railway, sick with jungle diseases, underfed to the point that you wonder that he could live - and yet he not only lived but kept drawing everything he saw: his fellow prisoners, his Japanese guards, the punishments, the sick, the wild animals, the railway - and always with the knowledge that such drawings were forbidden and, if caught, he might be executed. Yet this is a very encouraging story, even at times funny - as when he drew a Japanese guard asleep: the prisoners had made a deal with him that they would not escape if they let him sleep (instead of making them work). This is a book of illustrations and explanatory captions, making it highly readable. Searle tells of the (rare) Japanese officer who helped him draw, and of the way that many of his St Trinians ideas were inspired by the Kwai railway sufferings. Much more than a great cartoonist, Searle is a true artist, and his book explains how it happened.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book, along with several others, was used by me for my dissertation on the motivation of prisoners of war to produce art under difficult conditions. It would be arrogant of me to criticize such a work, suffice to say that it is at times light-hearted, but never loses its impact and is well worth reading, if only to remind us all of the suffering endured by so many in times of war.
Format:Hardcover
These drawings are simply stunning and atmospheric. They capture the story of Ronald Searle from army recruit to the prisoner of war far better than any camera could ever do, some of them are haunting. A great tribute to the POWs and an essential record to that time.
I would strongly recommend this book.
I would strongly recommend this book.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Painting & Drawing
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > East Asia > Japan
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > Middle East > Arabian Peninsula
- Books > History > Military History > Prisoners of War
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Battles & Campaigns
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Countries > Japan
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Origins
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Prisoners of War
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
