A VERY thorough account of Allied prisoners in Europe during the Second World War.

The heroics of Colditz, etc., are here, but so too are darker themes, like collusion with the enemy and thieving among the prisoners. In an account of "goonbaiting", the German guards emerge with credit for what the author admits was their "forebearance". He justifies the prisoners' seemingly childish pranks by observing: "As the guards had the guns the prisoners had to look for oblique strategies to counter the enemy's material superiority.'