To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings, 1939-45

192pp, fully illustrated. Black cloth-covered boards; gilt titles on spine. 4to. Lightly rubbed spine ends. Front free endpaper tanned and has slight indentation for pamphlet loosely laid-in. Otherwise, internally neat, clean, bright and tight. Dust jacket has some shelf wear, 2cm closed tear to top front, light chipping to edges, mirrors book damage. As an art student, Ronald Seale volunteered to join the armed forces in 1939 when the Second World War broke out.  Within a month, he'd be captured in Japan and spend the next 14 months in a prisoner of war camp before being sent to work on the Burma Railway, and to the notorious Changi jail in Singapore.  Throughout his time as a prisoner of war, he records his experiences in sketches and drawings - stained with sweat and dirt, and smuggled from place to place, they are one man's experience of war, and a moving and important record of one aspect of the Second World War.