Stanley

This is a story of one courageous woman’s fight against the vicissitudes, brutality and starvation that faced civilians incarcerated in the infamous Stanley prison, by the Japanese, in Hong Kong during World War II.

The story she tells is absolutely fascinating providing, as it does, an essential fragment of Hong Kong’s social history. Written simply, without any obnoxious purple passages or journalese, this is a true story of survival, absorbing in its simplicity and details of the very essence of staying alive—growing vegetables in such stark conditions—and sane.

A book that will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers.

Jean Gittins was born in Hong Kong to Sir Robert and Lady Clara Ho Tung, who brought up their family to appreciate equally their Chinese and European heritage. Secretary to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong at the time, Jean was incarcerated, with others of the University staff, in Stanley Prison Camp shortly after the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941. After the war she settled in Australia with her son and daughter, and was for many years Secretary to the Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne. Jean has always maintained an interest in and been an active member of International P.E.N. She has written numerous articles and is the author of Eastern Windows-Western Skies and the recently published The Diggers from China, the story of Chinese on the Goldfields.