Despite Captivity. A Doctor's Life as Prisoner of War. by John Borrie. SIGNED BY AUTHOR.

Publisher: Whitcoulls, 1975, First New Zealand Edition. VERY SCARCE SIGNED COPY

Good hardcover and jacket. Brown cloth boards. Small piece cut out of top of ffep, no owner inscriptions. Pages very good, minor marks. Jacket has some creasing, patchy fading and 2 closed tears at edge. 240 pages, maps, b&w photo plates.

John Borrie was captured in Greece in 1941 and remained in German hands until his release in 1945. This is his record, as a dedicated doctor maintaining hospitals in the camps in which he worked, of everyday life in German prison camps. He recounts his fights to obtain essential medical equipment and supplies from the German camp authorities. He shows the humane instinct often put into practice by by some German authorities, and depicts equally vividly the brutality of others. The book is a tribute to the courage, endurance and singular fortitude of men of the fighting forces in privation, fear, sickness and pain. It is a tribute also to the honour and devotion of the medical profession, showing how doctors and surgeons performed complex operations under impossible conditions, and how brilliant improvisation compensated for the lack of amenities. This is a riveting and unusual account of imprisoned life. "Prof Borrie was a former lecturer of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Otago. He founded the postgraduate course for surgical specialists in basic medical sciences in 1957, and carried out pioneering research on lung cancer and transplantation. In 1926, his family moved to Dunedin, In 1932, he was head prefect at McGlashan and graduated proxime accessit .

All books are sent free by courier postage within New Zealand.

Pick up from Phoenixbooksnz.com Waimate, South Canterbury.

Please see our other listings for more great books: New Zealand History; Maori; First Editions; Signed; War & Military; Vintage & Antique, Hunting, Climbing, and many more. W/J

Home