I found this novel to be a slightly uneven read. The British Colonel Nicholson was modelled by Boulle upon several of his French superiors during his own time in a Japanese POW camp the composite portrait is not particularly flattering and led to some rather touchy Anglo-French relations when the book and then the movie achieved their astonishing success. There was a wartime-built bridge over the River Kwai it’s still there and very much in use, and apparently quite a tourist attraction. The tale itself is fictional, though it is based on a number of real scenarios. This short novel was made into a very successful 1957 movie starring Alec Guinness it won Best Picture for its year at the Academy Awards, and a whole slew of other prizes. To prove British superiority, he convinces Saito to let the prisoners redesign the edifice, and it goes ahead with astonishing speed.Ĭolonel Nicholson seems to have forgotten that his country is at war, and he unwittingly turns collaborator, which will have tragic consequences when a small, secret team of British saboteurs arrive to knock the bridge out of action on its gala opening day. When the “savage” Japs set the Brits to building a rail bridge across the River Kwai, Nicholson’s contempt for their incompetence gets the better of him. No one must attempt to escape, and the formal surrender must be done just so, rather to the bemusement of the Japanese invaders, headed by Colonel Saito, himself a strong believer in saving face. This is a spare, terse war novel, based on the French author’s experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war, concerning the fictionalized building of a key bridge on the infamous 250-mile-long “Death Railway” (over 100,000 POWs and local conscripts died in its construction) between Siam and Burma during World War II.īritish Colonel Nicholson, a stickler of a stiff upper lipper if ever there was one, insists his men abide by the rules when they are forced to surrender to the Japanese after the fall of Malaya.

Translated from the French by Xan Fielding.

Bridge on the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle ~ 1952.

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