A Town Like Alice
Nevil Shute Audio Book

During the war against Japan, a group of English women and children are marched across Malaya. Constantly fighting dysentery and exhaustion, many die on the way but the rest survive. Led by Jean Paget they eventually settle in a village where they work in rice fields and are shown compassion by the Malays.

Three years later they are freed and Jean returns to England, working quietly and efficiently as a shorthand typist. She is emotionally scarred by her experiences but settles down – until receiving an unexpected bequest. Wanting to repay the support given to her by the Malays, she decides to return to the village – and there hears a story that leads her to Australia...

Nevil Shute Norway (1899–1960) was an engineer and novelist who was educated at Shrewsbury and Oxford. He served in both world wars. ‘A Town Like Alice' (1949) is by far his best known novel, but he also wrote ‘No Highway', 'The Far Country' and 'On the Beach'.