In the original dustsheet. Red cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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The Colonel of Tamarkan tells the true story of the construction and destruction of the Bridge on the River Kwai during World War Two. Far from being the bone-headed regular army officer portrayed in an Oscar winning performance in the film by Alec Guinness, the real-life colonel, Philip Toosey, was a charismatic leader with boundless energy and compelling charm. He had a strong sense of duty, and he was determined to bring back as many of his men alive as was humanly possible. In this he was judged by his fellow officers and prisoners to have succeeded but at great personal cost. This biography is described by General Sir Peter de la Bailliere, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in the First Gulf War, as outstanding. ‘It is the telling, that gives him the justice and understanding that he so richly deserves.’

Review: I finished this wonderful book this morning on the train and cannot praise it enough. Although not the best written biography I have ever read the subject of it compels you to read more and to want to know more about this moral, courageous and compassionate man. I first came across the name Philip Toosey in the book “Surviving the Sword Prisoners of the Japanese 1942-1945” by Brian MacArthur (another fabulous book and highly recommended) and was determined to find out more about this remarkable man. I’m pleased I did. The book is written by his granddaughter. The only time she relates the story through her eyes is in the very last pages of the book, although there are one or two anecdotes that she mentions regarding her sister Stephanie, again towards the end of the book. And, although I have mentioned it is not the best written biography, I have ever read it is one that drew me in from the beginning and kept me thoroughly engaged from beginning to end, and the reason – the character of Philip Toosey.

Julie Summers was born in Liverpool but grew up in Cheshire. Her first book, Fearless on Everest, published in 2000, was a biography of her great uncle, Sandy Irvine, who died on Everest with Mallory in 1924. Her grandfather, Philip Toosey, was the man behind the Bridge on the River Kwai and her biography of him appeared in 2005. Fascinated by how people cope with extreme situations, she has turned her attention on the effect of the Second World war on non-combatants – the women and children. Recently she published Fashion on the Ration, a book that looks at what we wore during the Second World War. Her book Jambusters, the story of the WI in wartime, has inspired ITV’s brand new 2015 drama series HOME FIRES, featuring Samantha Bond, Francesca Annis and many others.

The Bridge over the River Kwai (Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942–1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle’s own life experience working in Malaysia rubber plantations and later working for allied forces in Singapore and Indochina during World War II. The novel deals with the plight of World War II British prisoners of war forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to build a bridge for the “Death Railway”, so named because of the large number of prisoners and conscripts who died during its construction. The novel won France’s Prix Sainte-Beuve in 1952.