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I was thinking of reading I am Legend as I’ve already seen the film.
Worth buying Dave?I thought the book was quite scary and surreal, a touch of class about it. Best book I’ve read in a while, so yes, thumbs up from me.
The first adaptation of I Am Legend was directed by Uboldo Ragona and starred Vincent Price; it was called ‘The Last Man on Earth’ and my filmy friend says it is still the best version even though it was made in 1964.
I’ve been sent some extracts from Adrian Gilbert’s excellent book POW as my father was one such prisoner incarcerated at the Merchant Navy camp – Milag – part of Marlag und Milag Nord, near Hamburg, 1940-45.
I quote below a few snippets that might be of interest to some, I hope so:-
..Gambling thrived at the Milag camp. ‘Every day the West Hall was opened up as a gambling den,’ wrote one seaman. ‘On entering, it reminded one at first glance of a low Western gambling saloon. Thick tobacco smoke hung in the air, crowds of men at roulette tables and poker schools, all were going in full swing. It was always difficult to move around between tables owing to the crowd’.
In an attempt to re-create the excitement of track meetings, one gambler trapped mice to employ as the racing animals, but the idea was abandoned when the mice started fighting and killing each other before the race.
Betting on human runners was more successful, with the annual sports day attracting its share of bookies from the self-styled Milag Jockey Club.…One novelty competition the ‘pony race’ in which the contestants were men under 5 foot 5 inches. Wrote one…’colossal sums of money were won and lost on this ridiculous race ‘.
A minister wrote…’several men are mentally deranged or ill through betting’…
I’m afraid it doesn’t just affect men…dear.
[POW by Adrian Gilbert
Allied Prisoners in Europe 1939-1945].Wonder what women did or would have done in all women PoW camps? [never watched Tenko or whatever it was called]….
Do you think they got a refund on ante-post bets if a mouse got killed by another?
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lol…unlikely Nathan … my father wouldn’t have at any rate but what would you expect – he became a bookie later in life.
Wonder what women did or would have done in all women PoW camps? [never watched Tenko or whatever it was called]….
….A good question Moe.
‘We Band of Angels’ by Elizabeth Norman, the true story of nurses captured by the Japanese during WW2 would shed some light on that. A hellish experience it seems.
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