John Coast

A bestseller in 1946, Railroad of Death is the first and best account of forced labour on the Burma Railway. John Coast was a young officer in the Norfolk Regiment who was taken prisoner at the Fall of Singapore in February 1942. He took notes and concealed them from the Japanese for nearly three years, but he lost the lot when he was forced to bury them in Chungkai Camp to avoid repeated searches. Coast had to write the book all over again while on the voyage home. His book is moving, dramatic and chilling in the detail it gives of the cruelty inflicted by Japanese and Korean soldiers on the prisoners and Asian workers who died in even greater numbers working on the railway. Yet it is at the same time lyrical in its descriptions of the natural world surrounding the camps and the food and kindness shown by some Thais to the prisoners. Coast brings to life the camps and towns of the Burma Railway and the culture of Bali and Indonesia that so entranced Coast, allowing him to find some comfort and meaning amid the horror.

This new edition has an introduction and appendices which takes Coast’s legacy of dealing with his experiences in the camps forward through to his groundbreaking 1969 BBC programme Return to the River Kwai and beyond and includes transcriptions of his BBC interviews with his Japanese captors and Takashi Nagase. Nagase’s appearance, decades before his meeting with Eric Lomax, author of The Railway Man, is revelatory when he and the other Japanese are asked to comment on evidence of Japanese treatment of POWs on the Railway. Other appendices include never before published documents which help reveal details about secret radios and attempted escapes masterminded by the talented group of officers around Coast. The new edition includes an index and list of newly identified individuals mentioned in the book including the famous Lieutenant Railroad of Death: Colonel Toosey.

Reviews

Railroad of Death by John Coast Reviews, 1946 publication

“I was never conscious of reading as I perused this book – only of seeing and feeling.” Stephen Potter, News Chronicle

“It is to be hoped that possible readers will not just say ‘Another POW book’ and fail to read Mr Coast… Mr Coast writes simply, almost in diary form, of what happened or failed to happen… the exchange of one horror for another; the varying barbarity of his captors… It seems incredible that men could have endured.” Time and Tide

“There are some war books that should be Required Reading… Such a book is Railroad of Death.” Sphere

“Mr Coast has wisely chosen to write of things as they seemed then and his memory is clear, detailed and undistorted.” Graham Hough, The New Statesman

“For one who only arrived in the East a few weeks before the fall of Singapore, Mr Coast shows a remarkable understanding of the peoples, their cultures and their problems.” Straits Times, Singapore

Jon Grahame

“I’m 18, going on death… and this is the age of terror.”

Months since the virulent flu-like pandemic known as ‘SuperSARS’ wiped out 98% of the world’s population, Britain has become a place of chaos, carnage and terror for the few survivors.

After its bloody confrontation with the murderous paramilitaries of ‘Muldane’s Army’, The North Yorkshire community of ‘Haven’ licks its wounds. Both Jim Reaper and Sandra Hinchliffe harbour the pain of having lost loved ones in the conflict. More people are flocking to the sanctuary. They bring new skills and the hopes of finding peace and security and a return to civilisation.

But Reaper knows that just as decent people are coming together in ever-greater numbers and with more sophisticated technology, so too, inevitably, are the predators, and the depraved. And so Reaper and Sandra venture abroad seeking early intelligence of the threats that lie over the horizon while dealing with evil wherever they find it, and in the only way they know how.

But Sandra is no longer an apprentice: the loss of her husband has turned her hard, efficient and ruthless. Across the isolated settlements a modern legend spreads. It speaks of the Angel of Death.

Jon Grahame

“Jim Reaper started to plan a murder as thousands began to die in a natural disaster that almost killed the world…”

A down-at-heel, middle-aged ex-cop has nothing much to live for. But then he learns that the man who raped and killed his daughter has been released from prison after serving only three years.

Obsessed with preparations for revenge, Jim Reaper is largely indifferent to reports of what the world’s media have labelled ‘SuperSARS’, a virulent pandemic spreading swiftly westwards from China.

Reaper slaughters his daughter’s killer and finds himself in a police cell. But there’ll be no trial for Reaper; the fabric of law enforcement and of organised society itself is already in terminal decline as 99% of Britain’s population succumb to severe flu-like symptoms. As the last of Reaper’s custodians leaves his post to take to his bed he leaves Reaper the keys to the cell.

Days later, when Reaper finally emerges, he walks the city streets for hours without seeing anyone – and then he spots three men, armed with shotguns and dragging a teenage girl with a dog-collar and chain. Reaper returns to the station to collect a Kevlar vest, two handguns and a Heckler and Koch carbine…

Reviews

‘Jon Grahame’s Reaper is dark, brutal and action packed. Just what I love to read.’ Matt Hilton, author of the Joe Hunter thrillers    

Toby Frost 

The fourth instalment of The Chronicles of Isambard Smith – Captain in the service of the British Space Empire.

In the 25^th Century the future of the galaxy rests on a knife edge. The actions of one man could save the British Space Empire, or leave Earth at the mercy of deadly legions of ant-people. That one man is Captain Isambard Smith, and Earth is in a lot of trouble.

After blowing up a top-secret base, Smith and his crew deserve a rest. But their holiday is cut short when forces unknown destroy the robot convoy they were meant to be guarding. Smith finds himself in hot pursuit of a mysterious vessel that can pass through dimensions, incurring the wrath of the dreaded Grand Witchfinder of New Eden – which would be so much easier if his pilot wasn’t cowering under the dashboard and his ship wasn’t infested with man-eating toads.

Meanwhile, the Empire is gathering its allies to form a united front against alien tyranny. Unfortunately, the delicate negotiations have been entrusted to Major Wainscott, a man who knows no fear and very little about diplomacy or trousers. Once again, Captain Smith must summon all his courage to unite humanity behind the Empire. His quest will take him on a journey to face his greatest fears: from the depths of space, through Hell itself – and even to France.

Reviews

‘Toby Frost has created a very entertaining sci-fi comedy romp that openly borrows and sends up some of the most well known science fiction films and TV shows. If you don’t mind poking fun at sci-fi classics, and your nose doesn’t get bent out of shape by that sort of thing, then this is a series for you.’ Walkerofworlds.com