A Town Like Alice (U.S. title: The Legacy) is a novel by the English author Nevil Shute. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Nevil Shute Norway ( 17 January 1899 - 12 January 1960) was both a popular novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer It was first published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The "Alice" in the title refers to Alice Springs, Australia. Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia.

It was made into a motion picture in 1956 starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, directed by Jack Lee. The year 1956 in film involved some significant events Events August 4 - The last film serial Blazing the Overland Virginia McKenna OBE (born 7 June 1931, London) is an English stage and screen actress Author and Wildlife This article is about the actor For the poet see Peter Finch (poet. Jack Lee ( 27 January 1913 – 15 October 2002) was a film director writer editor and producer This film was known as Rape of Malaya in U. S. cinemas, and by various other titles in non-English-speaking countries.

In 1981, A Town Like Alice was adapted into a popular television miniseries, starring Helen Morse and Bryan Brown (with Gordon Jackson as Noel Strachan). A miniseries (also mini-series) in a serial Storytelling medium is a production which tells a story in a pre-planned limited number of episodes Helen Morse (born 24 January 1948 is an Australian actor who has appeared in films on television and on stage Bryan Neathway Brown AM (born 23 June 1947 in Sydney) is an Australian actor Gordon Cameron Jackson, OBE (19 December 1923 &ndash 15 January 1990 was a Scottish Emmy Award -winning Actor best remembered for his roles It was broadcast internationally: in the United States, it was shown as part of the PBS series Masterpiece Theatre. The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the Masterpiece (formerly known as Masterpiece Theatre) is a drama Anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston.

In 1999, the Modern Library ranked the novel seventeenth on The Reader's List of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The Modern Library, a current division of Random House Publishers was founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. ^[1]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Historical accuracy 3 Themes 4 References 5 External links

Plot summary

A few years after World War II, a young woman, Jean Paget, who was working in Malaya when the Japanese invaded, tells her London solicitor the story of her experience in Malaya during the war. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula that were colonized by the British from the 18th and the 19th until the 20th century The Battle of Malaya was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from December 8 1941 to January 31 London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. A "solicitor" is a term used in many Common law jurisdictions for a lawyer who offers legal services outside of the courts As presented in flashbacks, she is one of a party of European women and children who are marched around Malaya by the Japanese, since no camp will take them in and the Japanese army does not to take responsibility for them. An army (from Latin Armata "act of arming" via Old French armée) in the broadest sense is the land-based Armed forces Many of them die on the march, and the rest survive only on the charity of the local villagers.

On their march from one village to another, Jean meets a young Australian soldier, Joe Harman, also a prisoner. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. He steals food and medicines to help them, and is severely punished by the Japanese authorities. Food is any substance usually composed primarily of Carbohydrates Fats water and/or Proteins that can be eaten or drunk by an Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the The women are marched away and believe that the soldier died.

Jean survives the war and returns to London. A few years later, she unexpectedly inherits a substantial amount of money from a distant relative. After some thought, she tells her solicitor, Noel Strachan, that she had decided to return to Malaya to build a well in a village where the people sheltered her and the other Europeans for three years.

When she arrives, she learns that Joe Harman survived his punishment and returned to Australia. She travels on to Australia, visits the town of Alice Springs, where Joe lived before the war, and is much impressed with the quality of life there. She then travels to the primitive outback Queensland town of Willstown, where Joe has become manager of a cattle station. Outback or the Outback refers to remote arid areas of Australia, although the term colloquially can refer to any lands outside of the main Urban areas Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern corner of the mainland continent In the meantime, Joe has learned that Jean survived the war and is unmarried, and so he has drawn down money he won in the state lottery in order to travel to Britain in search of her. On Noel Strachan's advice, he returns to Queensland, and the two finally meet again.

They eventually decide to marry. Using her inheritance, Jean and Joe start several business enterprises to help build the small outback town of Willstown develop into a place where people would like to live — "A town like Alice".

Historical accuracy

Jean Paget was based on Carry Geysel (Mrs J. G. Geysel-Vonck) whom Shute met while visiting Sumatra in 1949. Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470000 km² and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two ^[2][3] Geysel had been one of a group of about 80 Dutch civilians taken prisoner by Japanese forces at Padang, in the Dutch East Indies in 1942, and forced to march around Sumatra for two-and-a-half years, covering 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles). The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Padang (means field) is the capital and largest city of West Sumatra, Indonesia. See http//enwikipediaorg/wiki/WikipediaFootnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the tags and the template below Fewer than 30 people survived this march.

Shute based the character of Harman on Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards, an Australian veteran of the Malayan campaign, whom Shute met in 1948 at a station (ranch) in Queensland. Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards ( July 26 1913 –June 2000 was an Australian soldier during World War II. Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for Livestock production ^[4][5] Edwards had been crucified for 63 hours by Japanese soldiers on the Burma Railway. Crucifixion (from Latin crucifixio, noun of process crucifixio, from perfect passive participle crucifixus, fixed to a cross from The Burma Railway, also known also as the Death Railway, the Thailand-Burma Railway and similar names is a 415 km (258 mile railway between He had later escaped execution a second time, when his "last meal" of chicken and beer could not be obtained. The last meal is a customary part of a condemned prisoner's last day Crucifixion (or Haritsuke) was a form of punishment or torture that the Japanese sometimes used against prisoners during the war. Crucifixion (from Latin crucifixio, noun of process crucifixio, from perfect passive participle crucifixus, fixed to a cross from

The fictional "Willstown" is reportedly based on Burketown, Queensland, which Shute also visited in 1948. Climate Burketown is characterised by hot humid and wet summers and warm dry winters ^[6] (Burke and Wills were well-known explorers of Australia. In 1860-61 Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to )

Themes

The protagonists share the colonial attitudes of the time: Aborigines are referred to as "boongs" or "abos", terms now considered racial slurs. The following is a list of ethnic slurs that are or have been used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given Ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical The following is a list of ethnic slurs that are or have been used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given Ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical It is also assumed that non-whites must use different shops and bars than whites and that they are less reliable than whites.

References

External links

• A Town Like Alice (1956) at the Internet Movie Database
• A Town Like Alice (1981) at the Internet Movie Database

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