A Town Like Alice

In this famous war romance, formerly named The Legacy, a beautiful young woman named Jean Paget is thrust into the role of leader of a group of English women in Malaya who are forced on a "death march" across the country during World War II.   She leads the women and children for all of the years of the war is in Malaya under the supervision of a Japanese commander. When their numbers have been ravaged by disease and the exhaustion brought on by marching ten or more miles a day with inadequate food, she meets an Australian prisoner of war.  He offers to help, she tells him not to "stick out his neck" for them, and he steals them some chickens.  That theft leads to his ultimate crucifixion for the women he barely knew.  Finally, after such a horrible sight as that and three more years of incarceration, the women go home.  Jean returns to England to find her entire family dead from various causes and takes a job as a short-hand typist.  When she inherits money from her forgotten great-uncle, it is up to her trustee to decide if she will return to Malaya to find the fate of the Australian.  This riveting, surprising, and amazingly detailed story of two brave souls is one everyone should experience.