The Naked Island (book)

Last updated

The Naked Island is a 1952 memoir by Russell Braddon about his time as a prisoner of war in Changi, Singapore during World War II. It sold over two million copies and has come to be regarded as a classic of Australian literature. [1] It was also adapted into a play and led to a sequel. [2] [3]

Contents

Play

The play version debuted at the Union Theatre in Sydney on 18 January 1962 as part of a series of three new Australian plays under the auspices of the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. The others were Shipwreck by Douglas Stewart and The Break by Philip Albright. [4]

Critical reception was mixed. [5] [6]

Radio

The novel was adapted for radio on the ABC in 1961 and 1963.

TV Adaptation

The novel was adapted for British television in 1965.

It screened in the US in June 1970.

Premise

The time is August 1945, the place is the infamous Changi Jail in Japanese occupied Singapore. In the last few days of the war five Australian POW's are faced with summary execution. It is their job to pass on the news to the rest of the camp to ensure the success of a planned breakout.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Clavell</span> Australian-born British (later naturalized American) novelist (1921–1994)

James Clavell was an Australian-born British writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known as the author of his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television adaptations. Clavell also wrote such screenplays as those for The Fly (1958) and The Great Escape (1963). He directed the popular 1967 film To Sir, with Love for which he also wrote the script.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Finch</span> English-Australian actor (1916–1977)

Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Wake</span> Courier and SOE operative (1912–2011)

Nancy Grace Augusta Wake,, also known as Madame Fiocca and Nancy Fiocca, was a nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II, and briefly pursued a post-war career as an intelligence officer in the Air Ministry. The official historian of the SOE, M. R. D. Foot, said that "her irrepressible, infectious, high spirits were a joy to everyone who worked with her". Many stories about her World War II activities come from her autobiography, The White Mouse, and are not verifiable from other sources.

<i>Jedda</i> 1955 Australian film

Jedda, released in the UK as Jedda the Uncivilized, is a 1955 Australian film written, produced and directed by Charles Chauvel. His last film, it is notable for being the first to star two Aboriginal actors, Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth in the leading roles. It was also the first Australian feature film to be shot in colour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Changi Prison</span> Prison in Singapore

Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison complex in the namesake district of Changi in the eastern part of Singapore. It is the oldest and largest prison in the country, covering an area of about 50 ha. Opened in 1936, the prison has a rich history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bud Tingwell</span> Australian actor

Charles William Tingwell AM, known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian film, television, theatre and radio actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his first motion picture in 1946 and went on to appear in more than 100 films and numerous TV programs in both the United Kingdom and Australia.

Ronald Grant Taylor was an English-Australian actor best known as the abrasive General Henderson in the Gerry Anderson science fiction series UFO and for his lead role in Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinesound Productions</span> Australian film production company

Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company, established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres, that covered all facets of the film process, from production, to distribution and exhibition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parit Sulong Massacre</span> 1942 massacre in British Malaya by Japan

The Parit Sulong Massacre was a Japanese war crime committed by members of the Imperial Japanese Army on 22 January 1942 in the village of Parit Sulong, British Malaya. Soldiers of the Imperial Guards Division summarily executed approximately 150 wounded Australian and Indian prisoners of war who had surrendered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Piddingtons</span>

Sydney Piddington and Lesley Piddington were an Australian husband and wife mentalism team who performed as The Piddingtons and gave one of the most famous stage and radio telepathy acts of modern times. The Piddingtons never revealed their methods but did not claim to possess paranormal powers. There has been speculation from magicians about how they may have utilized codes, confederates or mechanical aids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Braddon</span> Australian writer

Russell Reading Braddon was an Australian writer of novels, biographies and TV scripts. His chronicle of his four years as a prisoner of war, The Naked Island, sold more than a million copies.

Peter Alan Yeldham was an Australian screenwriter for motion pictures and television, playwright and novelist whose career spanned five decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Shaw (public servant)</span> Australian engineer and public servant (1902–1983)

John Alexander Lachlan Shaw was an Australian civil engineer and New South Wales public servant, who served as the NSW Commissioner for Main Roads from 1962 to 1967.

The Life of Rufus Dawes is a 1911 Australian silent film based on Alfred Dampier's stage adaptation of the 1874 novel For the Term of His Natural Life produced by Charles Cozens Spencer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Wood (actor, born 1909)</span> Australian actor

John Wood was an Australian who acted on the stage and briefly became a film star in Hollywood and Britain in the late 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Irham Cole</span>

Edward Irham Cole was an Australian theatrical entrepreneur and film director whose productions represented a synthesis of Wild West show and stage melodrama. He managed a theatre company, called the Bohemian Dramatic Company, that performed in semi-permanent and temporary tent theatres. During 1910 and 1911 Cole directed a number of silent films, adapted from his stage plays and using actors from his theatre company.

"The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" is a 1961 Australian television drama play based on Barry Pree's 1961 play adaptation of the novel by Fergus Hume. It appeared as an episode of the anthology series The General Motors Hour. It aired on 6 August 1961 in Sydney and on 19 August 1961 in Melbourne.

The Square Ring is a 1952 play by Ralph Peterson.

The Break is a 1962 Australian play by Philip Albright. Albright was an American writer and actor who had moved to Australia. He died in 1959 and the play debuted after his death. It was an early Australian play to depict homosexuality. A manuscript dated from 1950 shows that Albright was working on the play well before it debuted. The play's setting was in Laura Masters flat in Potts Point. In October 1959 the play won equal second prize in Little Theatre Guild competition under the title The Bust.

Shipwreck is a 1949 Australian verse drama by Douglas Stewart about the Batavian Mutiny.

References

  1. Nigel Starck, "The Mind of Russell", National Library of Australia Magazine, September 2009 accessed 2 April 2014
  2. James Whitehand, "OBITUARIES Russell Braddon", Independent 30 March 1995 accessed 2 April 2014
  3. "Back From The Dead". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 29 March 1952. p. 8. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  4. "Australian plays at the Union Theatre". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 January 1962. p. 6.
  5. "Musicals outshone the plays". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 July 1962. p. 77.
  6. "Naked Island as play". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 January 1962. p. 6.