Books by Jacqueline Passman
Jacqueline Passman taught in both mainstream and deaf education. The discovery of her father’s wartime diary sparked her interest in the experiences of POWs in the Far East, and she gives regular talks on this subject.
A Cool Head in Hell: The Wartime Diaries of a British Doctor from Dunkirk to the Burma Railway
by Harry Silman & Jacqueline Passman
A Cool Head in Hell is a deeply moving book, partly because it's so understated. It's the diaries of Harry Silman, a doctor who enlisted in the British Army when World War II broke out and became a prisoner of war when Singapore surrendered. He ended up first in a prison camp at Changi and then, later, on the notorious Burma Railway, suffering unimaginable hardship as men dropped dead of illness, exhaustion, and malnutrition and once strong young men became skeletal frames of flesh.
The book was edited by his daughter, Jacqueline Passman, who does an amazing job of putting together diaries, letters and photos and explaining the context. Harry comes off as not only an unsung hero but also a wonderful, jaunty character. As Jackie writes of when she first read the diaries, "It was a shock for my sister, brother and me to find out what our father had actually been through, as he had made light of his wartime experiences, joking about the hardships and privations as if they were mere inconveniences."
Interviews with Jacqueline Passman
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1
Towards the Setting Sun: An Escape from the Thailand-Burma Railway
by James B. Bradley -
2
Down to Bedrock: The Diary and Secret Notes of a Far East Prisoner of War Chaplain 1942-1945
by Eric Cordingly -
3
To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings 1939-1945
by Ronald Searle -
4
Burma Railway Medicine: Disease, Death and Survival on the Thai-Burma Railway
by Geoff Gill & Meg Parkes -
5
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
by Richard Flanagan
The best books on The Burma Railway, recommended by Jacqueline Passman
The best books on The Burma Railway, recommended by Jacqueline Passman
Among the many horrors of World War II was the construction of the Burma–Thailand Railway, where tens of thousands of prisoners dropped dead of illness, exhaustion, and malnutrition, and once strong young men were reduced to skeletal frames of flesh. Jacqueline Passman, daughter of a British prisoner of war, talks to us about the experiences of her father, Harry Silman, a doctor with the British Army who was there and kept a diary, now published for the first time.
Interviews where books by Jacqueline Passman were recommended
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1
A Cool Head in Hell: The Wartime Diaries of a British Doctor from Dunkirk to the Burma Railway
by Harry Silman & Jacqueline Passman -
2
King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Unmaking of the Modern Middle East
by Scott Anderson -
3
The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom
by David Woodman -
4
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century
by Tim Weiner -
5
The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World
by Selena Wisnom -
6
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb
by Garrett Graff
New History Books
New History Books
It’s a golden age for historical writing, as well-researched and sometimes quite specialist books by historians are written in an engaging style for a broad audience. History books out in recent months range from ancient Assyria to the CIA in the 21st century.
