“Men’s souls are naturally inclined to covetousness but if ye be kind towards women and fear to wrong them, God is well acquainted with what ye do” (p. She uses a religious scripture to convince the village chief to accept her deal. Her ability to broker this deal and her bravery becomes legend. She finally convinces a village to take the group in, with the permission of the Japanese, to work in the rice paddies. Jean ends up becoming a leader of the group, in which many women and children die of disease and exhaustion.

This is the part of the story I remembered from the movie. Wherever the women and their children go, the Japanese commander in charge turns them away and gives them new marching orders. The group is captured by the Japanese and forced to march all over the country. The story is about Miss Jean Paget, from England, but who finds herself among the English women in Malaya when World War II breaks out. It also happens to be number 96 on the BBC book list, which I am trying to read all of but haven’t visited for a while. The book was a delightful read, and I’d suggest it as a perfect summer beach read if you are so inclined. I wanted to know where the movie had come from, as books are usually better than movies, and I had forgotten much of the plot. However, I had never read A Town Like Alice (1950) by Nevil Shute until a few weeks ago. We’d often catch parts of them, in between piano practice and playing with Barbies. She liked to watch these shows, and we liked watching them with her, sometimes. It was one of those movies my mom would put on during a rainy Saturday afternoon, like Anne of Green Gables or the six-hour version of Pride and Prejudice.

I’ve probably seen the movie version of A Town Like Alice at least ten times.

A town like alice book summary