ARTHUR’S WARBY ARTHUR BANCROFT WITH JOHN HARMAN, VIKING, $39.95.
An exceptional memoir by 19-year-old sailor Arthur Bancroft, whose secret diary tells a courageous story of mateship, survival and enduring love.
Arthur was not only a gifted writer, but also a cartoonist who illustrated letters to his sweetheart, Mirla, now his wife of 65 years. Her recollections appear as a refrain at the end of each chapter. Arthur’s voice is true blue: “You beauty!” he declared on being assigned to HMAS Perth.
It was when the ship set sail in 1942 for Java that Arthur’s war really began. Perth was struck by a torpedo and sunk in oil-slicked seas, and Arthur ended up as a Japanese POW. Stripped of their stinking oil-soaked rags, the POWS wore loin cloths for the next two and a half years, and lived on paltry rations of rice amid open sewers in extreme temperatures. Building the back-breaking Burma-Thailand railway, Arthur – whose shoeless childhood prepared him for the gruelling jungle marches – worked alongside an elephant with its date of birth, 1888, seared into its hide. It made Arthur feel secure, like “being in the shadow of the harbour bridge”. A charming read.
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