It was a slow start, but once I got into it, it grew on me. It was harrowing to read in parts but I felt the whole read was an experience that I would not have missed for the world.

I have gone on to look at Ronald Searle's drawings from his book "To the Kwai and Back : War Drawings 1929 -1945" and at more drawings from "Burma Railway Artist: The War Drawings of Jack Chalker" which has a foreword by Edward (Weary) Dunlop. I also had a look at "Archie's Letter. An Anzac Day Story" by Martin Flanagan, a children's book by the author's brother, I guess the book has taken hold of me in a way that is hard to explain. It is a beautiful read. I am copying in these additional titles in case anyone else feels like having a look too. Luckily our local library had copies :)


More links:

The real Goanna

Freeing My Father (Sydney Morning Herald)

Australian War Memorial Website .........

“Dunlop Force, commanded by Colonel E. E. “Weary” Dunlop, arrived at Konyu, in Thailand, from Java in January 1943. It was divided into two battalions, each 450-strong: O battalion (commanded by Major H. G. Grenier) and P battalion (commanded by Major F. A. Woods). Dunlop Force was the first group of Australians to reach the southern end of the railway. Captain J. L. Hands commanded A battalion (337-strong), and the Dutch R battalion also came under Dunlop's command. The force eventually moved to Hintok.”

-Taken from section on Thailand – there is also a map (the d force map) that shows the location of Kinshu and Hintok


Now it's time to share this book!

Thank you so much Carole888, for the privilege to read this book! Truth be told, it would not have been something I'd have picked, given the narrative/storyline. Having said that, I launched into it and loved every minute - ignorace is truly bliss, because I knew so little apart from the usual generalities of the Thai-Burma railway. Inevitably I found myself doing a whole heap of research and "lost" myself in space and time, with the horrors of life as a POW.
I have to say I was hooked from preface, when I saw Basho's poem and then on page 13 as soon as Dorrigo quoted "Ulysses" - I'm a sucker for Tennyson, Kipling, Browning....so I was with him all the way. I have known the power of what a simple poetic line can do, how it can ease pain, laminate reality and plug up a bloody wound to the heart! At Derrigo's deathbed, I was with him - "a poem his life, his life a poem".
I say again, death is the great equaliser. Life has nothing on it.

"Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die."