Our copy
We’ll always be thankful for our introduction to A Town Like Alice.
Long ago, we watched PBS’ Masterpiece Theater religiously. It didn’t matter what they produced on Sunday nights, we watched it.
We only had a couple television stations in those days before cable, and we had little money during my husband’s early years in the military.
Sunday nights at 9 were special.
We found many programs we loved over the years (Poldark I and II come to mind), but the one that has given us the most pleasure over all the years since then came from a story written by Neville Shute: A Town Like Alice.
An Unusual WWII story
It began simply enough with a London lawyer driving his car through the gloom of a Scotland night to the home of a reclusive bachelor who needed to write his will in the early 1930s. He left everything to his schoolboy nephew then living in Malaya.
A war erupted, and when the Scottish bachelor died years after the war, narrator Noel Strachan sought the heirs.
The search changed his life and opened his eyes to so much his staid suits and stuffy life didn’t expect.
Watching Noel grown and change is poignant and wonderful.
Neville Shute (Wikipedia)
Jean
The nephew had died building the railroad as depicted in The Bridge over the River Kwai.
His sister Jean Paget, then working for a shoe manufacture in England was the sole heir.
Noel took a liking to the lonely thirty year-old and saw himself as a man about the world. He introduced her to culture: fine dining, literature, plays and the opera, as she thought about what to do with her considerable inheritance.
Good natured, Jean went along and enjoyed the outings, one day insisting he join her at a local ice skating rink, where she reflected, “I used to dream about ice skating out there.”
Noel finally thought to ask Jean about her life during the war in Malaya.
Oh, my. What a tale she told.
Like so many, she had a searing experience and knew far more about life, love, suffering and the joy of giving than Noel had ever glimpsed.
Joe
When the Japanese forces came up river and seized all the men in the ex-pat community where Jean worked as a secretary and lived with her brother, they separated the British men from the women and children.
The men were sent to work on the railway where many died.
The Japanese officers sent the women and children to a Japanese internment camp–but they had to walk there.
And so began a year-long saga of trekking through the Malayan heat and humidity from one Japanese officer to another–constantly being turned away.
They died, one by one, until just a small band remained and encountered two Australian prisoners who knew how to drive and repair trucks.
Joe was a enterprising Aussie driving up and down the roads moving supplies for the Japanese.
He fell for Jean, though he thought her married since she carried a “little nipper” on her hip (an orphaned child), but he wanted to help the women and stole the items they needed to stay alive.
He snatched food and medicines where he could, siphoned gas from the truck tanks to sell and helped them for several weeks.
Until one day, he outrageously stole four of the local Japanese commander’s prize chickens.
When they found Joe, the Japanese crucified him.
Recognizing her did it to impress her, Jean was crushed.
After the War
Her story shocked Noel and moved him deeply.
She told him that night in London she had decided what to do with her inheritance.
Jean wanted to return to Malaya and build a well.
Would Noel okay the funds?
She explained why she wanted to build a well for a small fishing village that ultimately took in the women and let them work in the rice paddies for the rest of the war–thus saving their lives.
Noel agreed to see her go–as long as she promised to come back.
Of course she would come back.
There was nothing for her anymore “out there,” other her desire to bless the village which had blessed her.
He saw her off, received wonderful letters of her adventures, and one day Joe Harmon walked into his London office.
The rest of the story?
Glorious and oh, so satisfying.
Neville Shute
My husband and I both love A Town Like Alice.
But we also love all Neville Shute’s novels, because the hero is always an engineer like my guy.
(Not always, but mechanical forces usually show up). Our favorite book is Trustee from the Toolroom, but it’s not so famous or easy to find as A Town Like Alice.
Treat yourself to either the book or the movie.
Love, war, engineering, England, Australia and an immensely satisfying ending.
Oh and that town?
Alice Springs is in Australia.
Here’s the mini-series trailer:
Tweetables
A Town Like Alice: love, WWII, Asia and an engineer. What could be better? Click to Tweet
Our favorite WWII love story, the astonishing A Town Like Alice. Click to Tweet
An intense and satisfying WWI story: A Town Like Alice. Click to Tweet
I discovered this movie at my Grandma’s house when I was a teen! I watched it with her and enjoyed seeing her reaction to it as much as the movie.
We still love it. We’ve been watching it on a VHS tape but have recently found it at an obscure site as a DVD–which arrived just a few weeks ago.