AustLit

'The Story of Billy Young is the true story of the suffering - and survival - of an underage prisoner-of-war during World War II. Bill Young, who is still alive, enlised in the army in July 1941 aged only 15, though he said he was 19. He went to Singapore, was captured at the fall, and spent the rest of his teenage years in some of the most barbaric Japanese prisons.

From Changi he was sent to Sandakan in Borneo, from which he and a mate were lucky to escape before the infamous death marches. They were quickly caught, however, and Billy ended up in the notorious Outram Road prison in Singapore, where he spent much of the next two years in solitary confinement.

This is the story of how he survived that ordeal. Young Bill is an extraordinary testament to a young man's remarkable courage in the face of some of the most horrific experiences of wartime. It is also the story of the tragic effects of war and its aftermath on the personal lives of those who fought.' (Publisher's blurb)