CONJUROR ON THE RIVER KWAI: How Britain’s oldest magician performed his greatest trick – surviving as a Japanese PoW
Not many soldiers who fought throughout World War II are still alive. But one group in particular have almost gone now – the men who fought in the Pacific and were captured by the Japanese.
So to have a brand-new memoir from a man who endured the atrocities of the infamous Burma ‘Death Railway’ feels almost like an illusion – rather like the conjuring tricks which, as this astonishing book shows, diverted the Japanese and helped keep Fergus Anckorn alive.
Left for dead in a storm drain in Singapore, one of few survivors of a hospital massacre in which hundreds died, his sheer existence is a miracle. Yet here he is – still sturdy, bright-eyed and cracking jokes at 93, his story made public only because he happened to sit at dinner next to a writer, Peter Fyans, who realised what a tale Anckorn had to tell.
Yes, Fergus was lucky – but he also made his luck. He was shrewd, wiry, determined and quick-witted, all qualities which he would have to call upon.
Yet what saved him was his sleight of hand… Read more..
(Be sure to watch the BBC2
22 May 2015 )