Captured when Singapore fell, Battery Sergeant Major Charles Steel spent three and a half unpleasant years as a prisoner of the Japanese, first in Changi and later working as a slave labourer on the Burma Railway, where he was involved in the construction of the famous Bridge over the River Kwai. During this time he wrote no less than 183 letters to his wife, none of which were posted as letters and diaries were prohibited on pain of death, yet despite the risks he felt compelled to write them to keep her at the centre of his thoughts and so endure the dreadful experience. With background and explanatory notes, these letters are all presented in this book and describe all manner of aspects of life in the camps; not simply a catalogue of work carried out, atrocities witnessed, disease and starvation overcome, but a colourful account of the characters he met and even his moments of administrative revenge. Together they not only make a brilliant diary of the period, but also demonstrate how prisoners coped in the face of adversity.

Pegasus Archive