OUTSTANDING! - Rated 
I have never read a book so fast in all my life! A real 'page-turner', a riveting story. Its incredible that anyone could survive the experiences described in this book. I think that this book is crying out to be made into a film. It has everything that would make a truly great film :- a time of turmoil, an exotic location, a mild-mannered character drawn into a horrifying set of circumstances and surviving against staggering odds, humanity displayed at its best and at its worst, the backdrop of a world war, and ultimate reconciliation and forgiveness - the solution of an inner torment that could be solved in no other way.
I hope to see this on the big-screen one day.
An honest and unique personal testimony - Rated 
The reason this book makes such an impact is that while numerous other books of WWII experiences and POW and torture on the Burma Railway have been written since that conflict ended, this has two additional and unique aspects that mark it out.
The first is of the writer having undergone treatment at the Medical Foundation (a charity that usually deals with torture victims of harsh political regimes in peacetime) as their first ex-serviceman with battle stress in 1988, 43 years after the war had ended!
The second is that he subsequently met with one of the Japanese soldiers who had participated in the torture sessions he had suffered, by a series of opportune circumstances and as part of his above recovery programme. It is a fact that while that Japanese soldier's role was solely as translator and not physical torturer, for the writer the focus of that person's role as he suffered given the questioning he underwent had led to him reserving most hatred for him in his memories of events.The evidence learnt that the individual had devoted himself since the end of the War to charitable works around the events in Asia had made little impact till they met.
By the end the reconciliation and forgiveness which the author had denied as possible up to that point occur since as he accepts the hating has to stop.
A remarkable personal testimony though I have to admit I found it owes as much to the honest and simple factual writing style including the many admissions of personal mistakes and naivete on events both pre and post the war as well as the errors that led to his suffering the fate he did in Asia after capture by the Japanese.
poignant for today - Rated
I was extremely moved by this book when i read it a few years ago and gave it to my father in law, a second world war veteran. it was especially memorable for introducing me, second hand, to the torture now known as water boarding and the fact that experiencing this torture had an almost lifelong impact on the author.
today i read that the bush administration's nominee for attorney general , mr. mukasey, refused to state whether he thought waterboarding a form of torture or not. i recommend he read this account, unless he chooses to undergo the procedure firsthand. now under the bush regime we have truly become the people we hated and demonized.
Read it - Rated
This book is one of the most moving biographies I have ever read. Twenty something "celebrities" who pen biographies should feel ashamed of themselves for thinking they have a story to tell. This man is one of the few with a story worth telling. I am grateful to have read his story, and wish to say that people like him are too few in this world. Read this book, please, and see how some people can be worth celebrating.
superb read - Rated
Not being an avid reader of books I picked up this one after being recommended by John Gaunt on Talksport.
Though I'd give it a go... and it blew me away. There are two parts in particular that literally reduced me to tears.
But as i said I don't normally read books however this is a masterpiece and has sparked off a whole new passion for reading within me.
I have subsequently bought 3 more books on the subject and having read the Railway man I can't wait to start the next.
If you don't have this book in your collection you must be mad!!!!!!
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