The Railway Man

Description

A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences. Almost 50 years after the war, however, his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpretor, was still alive - their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.

Awards

Winner of Esquire/Apple/Waterstone Non-Fiction Award 1995 and NCR Book Award 1996 and Joe Ackerley Prize 1996 and AT & T Non-Fiction Award 1996 and J.R. Ackerley Prize 1996. Shortlisted for McVities Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year 1995.

Author description

Eric Lomax was born in 1919. He died in 2012.