Mind you, there is enough action in Parkin's wartime career to satisfy the most avid military buff. Parkin was chief quartermaster aboard the HMAS Perth when it was sunk by the Japanese navy in the Sunda Strait in 1942. Fighting a prisoner's war demanded a different kind of courage from that of the active soldier. Maintaining one's humanity in often indescribably oppressive circumstances wasn't easy. Not that he exculpates the Japanese.
Sadistic guards populate the narrative in all their convulsive craziness.
There is a largeness of spirit here that is often missing in Australian war literature. As the trilogy progresses, Parkin's gradual immersion in the culture of his captors gives his account texture and depth beyond the humdrum descriptiveness of most POW books. Captivity is thereby turned into a genuinely creative experience. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.