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EspañolA TOWN LIKE ALICE
'''A Town Like Alice''' (U.S. title: ''The Legacy'') is a novel by the English author Nevil Shute. It was first published in 1950. The "Alice" in the title refers to Alice Springs, Australia.
It was made into a motion picture in 1956 starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, directed by Jack Lee. This film was known as ''Rape of Malaya'' in U.S. cinemas, and by various other titles in non-English-speaking countries.
In 1981, ''A Town Like Alice'' was adapted into a popular television miniseries, starring Helen Morse and Bryan Brown. It was broadcast internationally; in the United States, it was shown as part of the PBS series ''Masterpiece Theatre''.
A few years after World War II, a young woman, Jean Paget, who was working in Malaya when the Japanese invaded, tells her London lawyer the story of her time in Malaya during the war. She is one of a party of European women who were marched around Malaya by the Japanese, since no camp would take them in and the Japanese army would not take responsibility for them. Many of them die on the march, and the rest survive only by the charity of the local villagers.
On their march from one village to another, she meets a young Australian soldier, Joe Harman, also a prisoner. He steals food and medicines to help them, and is severely punished by the Japanese authorities. The women are marched away and believe that the soldier died.
Jean survives the war and returns to London. A few years later, she unexpectedly inherits a substantial amount of money from a distant relative. She discusses the matter with her lawyer, Noel Strachan (played in the 1981 version by notable British actor Gordon Jackson), and decides to return to Malaya to attempt to help the people in a village who sheltered them.
When she arrives, she learns that Joe Harman survived his punishment and returned to Australia. She travels on to Australia and visits the town of Alice Springs, where Joe lived before the war. She then travels to the outback Queensland town of Willstown, where Joe has become manager of a cattle station. But in the meantime, Joe has learned that Jean survived the war and is unmarried, and so he has drawn down money he won in the state lottery in order to travel to Britain in search of her, but in vain. On her lawyer's advice, he returns to Queensland and they meet.
They eventually decide to marry. Using her inheritance, Jean helps to build the small outback town of Willstown into a place where people would like to live — a town like Alice Springs.
Despite the title of the book, very little of the action actually takes place in Alice Springs. Jean stays there whilst searching for Joe and is much impressed with the quality of life there. Jean and Joe start several business enterprises in an attempt to convert the primitive outback Willstown into "a town like Alice".
Jean Paget was based on Carry Geysel (a.k.a. Mrs J. G. Geysel-Vonck), whom Shute met while visiting Sumatra in 1949.[1] Geysel had been one of a group of about 80 Dutch civilians taken prisoner by Japanese forces at Padang, in the Dutch East Indies in 1942, and forced to march around Sumatra for two-and-a-half years, covering 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles). Fewer than 30 people survived this march.
Shute based the character of Harman on Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards, an Australian veteran of the Malayan campaign, whom Shute met in 1948 at a station (ranch) in Queensland.[2] Edwards had been crucified for 63 hours by Japanese soldiers on the Burma Railway. He had later escaped execution a second time, when his "last meal" of chicken and beer could not be obtained. Crucifixion (or ''Haritsuke'') was a form of punishment or torture that the Japanese sometimes used against prisoners during the war.
The fictional "Willstown" is reportedly based on Burketown, Queensland, which Shute also visited in 1948.[3] (Burke and Wills were well-known explorers of Australia.)
1. "Too Good to Be True" (''Time'', June 12, 1950) and Special Broadcasting Service, 2005 "She was Nevil Shute's inspiration for a Town Like Alice" Access date for both references: June 6, 2007.
2. Neville Shute Norway Foundation, "1948" and Roger Bourke, 2001–2002, "‘Cultural depth-charges’: Traditional meaning and prisoner-of-war fiction" Access date for both references: June 6, 2007.
3. Neville Shute Norway Foundation, ''Ibid''.
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It was made into a motion picture in 1956 starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, directed by Jack Lee. This film was known as ''Rape of Malaya'' in U.S. cinemas, and by various other titles in non-English-speaking countries.
In 1981, ''A Town Like Alice'' was adapted into a popular television miniseries, starring Helen Morse and Bryan Brown. It was broadcast internationally; in the United States, it was shown as part of the PBS series ''Masterpiece Theatre''.
| Contents |
| Plot summary |
| Historical accuracy |
| References |
| External links |
Plot summary
A few years after World War II, a young woman, Jean Paget, who was working in Malaya when the Japanese invaded, tells her London lawyer the story of her time in Malaya during the war. She is one of a party of European women who were marched around Malaya by the Japanese, since no camp would take them in and the Japanese army would not take responsibility for them. Many of them die on the march, and the rest survive only by the charity of the local villagers.
On their march from one village to another, she meets a young Australian soldier, Joe Harman, also a prisoner. He steals food and medicines to help them, and is severely punished by the Japanese authorities. The women are marched away and believe that the soldier died.
Jean survives the war and returns to London. A few years later, she unexpectedly inherits a substantial amount of money from a distant relative. She discusses the matter with her lawyer, Noel Strachan (played in the 1981 version by notable British actor Gordon Jackson), and decides to return to Malaya to attempt to help the people in a village who sheltered them.
When she arrives, she learns that Joe Harman survived his punishment and returned to Australia. She travels on to Australia and visits the town of Alice Springs, where Joe lived before the war. She then travels to the outback Queensland town of Willstown, where Joe has become manager of a cattle station. But in the meantime, Joe has learned that Jean survived the war and is unmarried, and so he has drawn down money he won in the state lottery in order to travel to Britain in search of her, but in vain. On her lawyer's advice, he returns to Queensland and they meet.
They eventually decide to marry. Using her inheritance, Jean helps to build the small outback town of Willstown into a place where people would like to live — a town like Alice Springs.
Despite the title of the book, very little of the action actually takes place in Alice Springs. Jean stays there whilst searching for Joe and is much impressed with the quality of life there. Jean and Joe start several business enterprises in an attempt to convert the primitive outback Willstown into "a town like Alice".
Historical accuracy
Jean Paget was based on Carry Geysel (a.k.a. Mrs J. G. Geysel-Vonck), whom Shute met while visiting Sumatra in 1949.[1] Geysel had been one of a group of about 80 Dutch civilians taken prisoner by Japanese forces at Padang, in the Dutch East Indies in 1942, and forced to march around Sumatra for two-and-a-half years, covering 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles). Fewer than 30 people survived this march.
Shute based the character of Harman on Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards, an Australian veteran of the Malayan campaign, whom Shute met in 1948 at a station (ranch) in Queensland.[2] Edwards had been crucified for 63 hours by Japanese soldiers on the Burma Railway. He had later escaped execution a second time, when his "last meal" of chicken and beer could not be obtained. Crucifixion (or ''Haritsuke'') was a form of punishment or torture that the Japanese sometimes used against prisoners during the war.
The fictional "Willstown" is reportedly based on Burketown, Queensland, which Shute also visited in 1948.[3] (Burke and Wills were well-known explorers of Australia.)
References
1. "Too Good to Be True" (''Time'', June 12, 1950) and Special Broadcasting Service, 2005 "She was Nevil Shute's inspiration for a Town Like Alice" Access date for both references: June 6, 2007.
2. Neville Shute Norway Foundation, "1948" and Roger Bourke, 2001–2002, "‘Cultural depth-charges’: Traditional meaning and prisoner-of-war fiction" Access date for both references: June 6, 2007.
3. Neville Shute Norway Foundation, ''Ibid''.
External links
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