Escape From The Rising Sun

‘One of the best and liveliest escape stories of the Second World War…enthralling.’ - Times Literary Supplement.

February, 1942.

Singapore has fallen.

The British Army, retreating in disorder before the terrible onslaught of the Japanese shock troops, has been told to surrender.

It is one of the greatest defeats the British Army has ever suffered.

One man was convinced he could escape - and reclaim some honour from the disaster.

Geoffrey Rowley-Conwy seized a junk and sailed for Padang.

There he joined up with a group of fellow officers for a desperate bid to escape the Japanese.

Their plan? To take a dilapidated sailing boat across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon.

But to reach safety they would have to cross 1,500 miles of open sea swept by the fury of the monsoon and patrolled by Japanese fighter planes on the lookout for British survivors.

Escape From The Rising Sun is an incredible survival story of dedicated soldiers battling disease, depression, and the elements in the search for British-occupied land. With snippets from personal diaries and documents, it is a revealing recollection of the extraordinary feats of a group of very remarkable men.

Ian Skidmore is the author of more thirty books – many of them best-sellers. He was also one of the most widely-read newspaper columnists and radio show presenters in the UK. After thirty years with BBC Wales, he was awarded the coveted Golden Microphone Award.