The Barbed-Wire University : The Real Lives of Allied Prisoners of War in the Second World War

Author: Gillies, Midge

Second World War, 1939-1945

Published on 9 June 2025 by Safe Haven Books in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 528 pages, 30 b & w illustrations
197 x 130 x 43 | 448g

According to popular myth, Allied prisoners of war during the Second World War spent most of their time escaping. In fact, from Germany to the Far East, they were doing much more remarkable things.

Faced with the prospect of years of boredom, these servicemen took up the crafts and professions they'dpursued before their captivity - or set about learning new ones. They formed orchestras(asking the Red Cross to send kettle drums), sat accountancy exams (textbooks,please), dressed up in drag and put on operas. They contested Ashes series, laidout golf courses in the exercise yard. When they needed medical care, their ownsurgeons perfected camp dentistry, fashioned prosthetic limbs. Actors like Clive Dunn and Donald Pleasance, cartoonists like Ronald Searle, artists like Terry Frost - all developed, or even first plied, their crafts while POWs.

Little wonderthat one camp in Germany became known as 'the Barbed-Wire University' . . .

Acclaimed on firstpublication, this superb book is now reissued with an extensive Afterword.