There are books we can t be entirely rational about For good or bad, they push our personal buttons, and we adore or detest them beyond their own merits.A Town Like Alice is one of those books I love beyond reason It contains courage, determination when the odds are against you, and taking action to change others lives and the world around you for the better It has some bittersweet moments, as well as a little bit of romance.Nevil Shute based this 1950 novel on a WWII story he had heard about Du [...]

My first read by this author and it definitely won t be my last Felt like this was two stories held together by the indefatiable Jean Paget, she certainly is a wonderful, well written character Loved out narrator Noel, the older, gentlemanly London soliciter who administers the estate left to Jean from an uncle she little remembers There are no gimmicks here, just some good, old fashioned story telling with the added bonus of one learning quite a bit about Malaya, though the events here were act [...]

I couldn t tell you why I have resisted reading A Town Like Alice for so many years But I did Perhaps it is for the best whatever time it is we chose to land a particular book in our hands.When I began to read Shute s book, I quickly fell into it Noel Strachan is perhaps one of the most charming narrators I ve encountered Shute s use of the aging British Solicitor to unveil the story of Jean Paget drew me into the tale It was a simple enough matter Strachan was hired to write the will and admini [...]

I wanted to read this book for such a very long time I don t know why But finally it was done, and the tick on the Bucket List is happily added The story is based on a true story and therefore can be expected to be treated with utmost respect Fact and fiction is entwined here in such a way that the distinction between tale and truth becomes impossible However, the impact of the story is very real and very striking During WWII a group of English women were captured by the Japanese in the vicinity [...]

A Town Like Alice reminds me so much of my favorite book, Mrs Mike Both catalog the difficulties and triumphs of living in remote areas Both are historical Both have a strong and engaging female protagonist who are in love with a man responsibly tied to a piece of land Neither are fluffy Harlequins but make that pit in the bottom of your stomach churn with romance.In short, I loved it A Town Like Alice follows Jean Paget, a Scottish woman who was raised by her parents in Malay now known as Malay [...]

This novel had been lying about my house in India for a long time an old copy somebody abandoned I couldn t even recognise the name written on the cover Old houses gather books like they do other things moth eaten clothes, faded photographs and chipped chinaware This vacation, it kept on intruding itself into my consciousness so I said What the hell and finally decided to read it.The book pulled me into it at the beginning I liked the roundabout way Shute approached the story of Jean Paget throu [...]

Nevil Shute s sweeping novel sees privileged Englishwoman, Jean Paget, upended from her expat life in colonial Malaya by the invading Japanese, in WWII.Paget somehow survives the brutality of an enforced death march through a jungle peninsula and eschews the home comforts of post war England for altruistic work in far flung climes Malaya and the Australian outback.This is a compelling read, despite it seeming a bit dated now, and Shute can be commended for creating a modern, ballsy female charac [...]

One of the best make lemonade out of lemons books I ve read Warm, witty, real Told by Noel Strachan, an aging solicitor who is the trustee of Jean s estate, this story unfolds quietly Jean is a strong, delightful woman just the sort needed in the development of a section of Queensland, Australia that was left as a ghost town after the gold rush ended Although a story of love and connectivity, this isn t a sappy love story It s a solidly told story of a determined man woman who want to forge a li [...]

The author Nevil Shute left Britain and migrated to Australia because he believed that the advent of the Welfare State would cause people to go soft view spoiler because obviously life should be hard and characterised by arbitrary harshness towards one another, that s what toughens people up so they can steal chickens from the japanese hide spoiler Australia in his imagination was a decently virile and macho kind of place In the way that popular fiction often is, this is a heavily ideological no [...]

This month s bookclub pick, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, starts in England with an aging attorney setting up a trust Most of the story follows Jean Paget, who spent most of World War II in Malaya as a prisoner of the Japanese The journey after the war is the best part It s a slow journey to get there, but paid off Warning there are some racist comments in here that seem a bit harsh even in 1950.

Oh my word What a confused book A Town Like Alice has been such an intriguing read The writing had an easy flow to it and the story was certainly gripping, even though this decidedly is a book of two halves.The first half deals with the history of Jean Paget, in which we follow her to Malaya under the Japanese occupation The second half takes us on Jean s journey to Australia, where she hopes to find out about the man she whose death she believes she caused.There is much to like about both part [...]

This is a very hard book to categorize or review I read it almost 2 weeks ago, and have been trying to figure out how to convey it s essence I won t be able to, but here goes A Town Like Alice starts off fairly dry, with a narrative by an old English attorney who will continue to be the narrator of the story He sets up the premise of why young Jean Paget, our heroine, comes to receive an inheritance It s the early 1950 s, and the old attorney and Jean form a friendship due to the fact that his f [...]

At midnight on the night of December 8, 1941 men from the 8th Indian brigade stationed in northeastern Malaya came under heavy Japanese bombardment and by December 12 two beachheads and key airport had fallen to the Japanese With astonishing speed, across jungles the British had wrongly assumed were impenetrable, the Japanese advanced down the Malay peninsula, pushing the British south until, on February 15, 1942, the British were forced to surrender the key southern port city of Singapore to Ja [...]

What Nevil Shute may lack in eloquence he makes up for by providing the particulars that bring to life a distant place and time This is a love story, but not a romance There s no sex, no sappiness, no gasping or google eyes Just a lot of hardship, hard work, and, most notably, hope Jean Paget and Joe Harman meet in Malaya during World War II She is British, he Australian, and both are prisoners of the Japanese Joe sacrifices all to provide a little food for Jean s bedraggled group of women and c [...]

Story great writing terrible That pretty much sums it up for me The author took interesting characters and concepts and made them as dull as possible by telling it through the eyes of the lawyer I was constantly frustrated by that feeling of being removed from the characters and the action I wanted it to be so much vivid If this had been written first person from Jean s perspective, it would have made a world of difference.

A Town like Alice by Nevil Shute Nevil Shute s most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War Two to the rugged Australian outback Having read the blurb on this novel I was really looking forward to reading this story as it was described as Entertaining and Dramatic but unfortunately for me I neither found the book Dramatic or entertaining and really could only be pushed to describing it as a pleasant read that is neither exc [...]

Solicitor Noel Strachan tells the story of a young English woman for whom he is trustee Her uncle left a significant estate, but felt it should remain in trust until her 35th birthday Jean Paget was born in 1921 in Malaya when her father was employed there after World War I however she returned to Southampton in 1932 to finish her education When the elderly uncle dies in 1948, Strachan manages to track her down and over the course of several afternoon teas begins to get to know this remarkable y [...]

WWII POWs in Malaya alligator shoes and ice cream in rural AustraliaA Town Like Alice is a bonza book as one of its main characters, Joe Hardman of Australia, would say about two love stories, two adventures and two remarkable characters inspired by a real life man and woman who displayed remarkable bravery during WWII Nevil Shute gives these two people new fictional lives, and as Joe and Jean they are inspirationally resilient as prisoners of war in Japanese occupied Malaya and afterwards in mi [...]

There s nothing like an engineer writing a book Cool.Here s an image from the 1981 series I need to write a proper review but thought I d share this.

I tried to describe this book to my husband, and found myself unable to talk about the book without narrating the entire plot, but then backing away from that outline to explain that it wasn t a spoiler because what happens in the book is like the skeleton that the author hangs the depth of the story from That depth is in the characters and in the modest, yet compelling way the author describes as positive progress the way development can happen and economies can be created out of the will for p [...]

Page 38 Kuala means the mouth of a river.Page 56 People who spent the war in prison camps have written a lot of books about what a bad time they had, they don t know what it was like, not being in a camp This book was originally published as The Legacy This is the story of Jean Paget, a Scottish woman, who was captured together with 80 women and children by the Japanese during World War II in Malaya, when they have been forced to walk through the jungle trails for than 1200 miles.The narrator o [...]

I was surprised I liked this book so much It was written in the 1950 s and I found it absolutely charming That should be a genre I think, charming books I d throw in Parnassus on Wheels and 84 Charing Cross Road.A Town Like Alice is about a young Englishwoman who, after being a prisoner of war for years in Malaysia, inherits some money and sets out to Australia to find the man who tried to help her during the war It s got a little romance and a lot of adventure Jean Paget is a strong female prot [...]

People who spent the war in prison camps have written a lot of books about what a bad time they had, Jean Paget said quietly, staring into the embers They don t know what it was like, not being in a camp page 70 With this simple statement, the main protagonist of A Town Like Alice hints at the depths of the misery that she and her companions endured while prisoners of the Japanese during WW2 in Malaya This group of British women and children were subjected to appalling conditions and gross cruel [...]

When the opening sentence in a book includes the words he was riding in the Driffield point to point I can say my interest was piqued Driffield is about 20 miles from where I live and I know it well So I started this one with a smile and wondered where we were goingWe went a long long way from that small Yorkshire town Jean Paget our main protagonist was working in Malaya at the time the Japanese arrived during WW2 The Japanese army took many prisoners including Jean and 31 other women and child [...]

Most of my GR friends really enjoyed this, so please give it a go if you re thinking about it It didn t ring any bells for me but everyone is different.The storyline is intriguing and I was fully expecting a love till I die book but the writing itself ruined it for me It was just boring And I actually like slow books, but this was bone dry Lots of telling but very little showing Almost like a journal instead of a story I just didn t care any, you know In the hands of Emma Drummond this would be [...]

I discovered this book through the BBC big read where viewers choose their top 100 novels of all time I decided that I would make it my goal to read all 100 books as a way to broaden my reading horizons.While this book is an enjoyable read I believe that it hasnt dated that well and is quite racist in parts particularly against the Aboriginal people Some of the language and terms used tended to jar with me and left me feeling quite uncomfortable Although written in 1949 I still feel that the bla [...]

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Spoiler Alert When we first meet Jean Paget , she appears as a quiet, unassuming young woman , who has suddenly inherited a large sum of money.Jean s story gradually unfolds as she tells of the terrible ordeal she suffered through on a death march in Malaya , at the hands of the Japanese during WW II It is then that we discover that she has guts, heart and smarts.As the story proceeds , we learn just how courageous and savvy , she really is After going back to Malaya to give back to the people o [...]

What a great story This is the second book by Nevil Shute that I have read, and I loved it The story of Jean Paget and Joe Harman is told through the eyes of her elderly trustee, Noel Strachan, starting in Malaysia during WWII and ending in northern Queensland in the early 1950 s Told in an unemotional style, the story is touching, funny and very realistic Both Jean s and Joe s stories are interesting, believable and engaging, and intermixed with Noel s own story drive the narrative along to a c [...]

Superb.