Simon Parkin is an award-winning British writer and journalist. He is the author of A Game of Birds and Wolves, a contributing writer for the New Yorker and critic for the Observer newspaper. He lives in West Sussex.
Extraordinary yet previously untold true story...meticulously
researched...it's also taut, compelling, and impossible to put down
* Daily Express *
By shining a light upon the government's decision to intern the
innocent, Simon Parkin's eye-opening, insightful and brilliantly
written book serves as a timely reminder of the dangers of populism
* Daily Mirror *
Compelling . . . In this "university of captives", Parkin has
unearthed a small and riveting chunk of wartime history, easily
overlooked -- Anne de Courcy * The Telegraph *
Vivid and moving...Spotlights a sorry aspect of Britain's war which
deserves to be better known -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
The wealth of primary sources through which Parkin has trawled fill
its pages with life; his enthusiasm for his subject fills it with
affection. The reader is left with a powerful sense of
Weissenborn's verdict on Hutchinson: to turn a prison camp into a
university "was a miracle of the human will to live and to work". *
The Times *
Meticulously researched * Literary Review *
Parkin [has an] inimitable capacity to find the human pulse in the
underbelly of Britain's war...The Island of Extraordinary
Captives is multi-layered...definitely worth the deep dive into
Britain's inglorious war, when desperate men and women were
disregarded, abused and left to fester in a humiliating no man's
land. It's a reminder that conflict has always been a convenient
mask behind which thuggery and xenophobia thrive. Yet, despite the
stark injustice it describes, it is a curiously exhilarating read:
an example of how individuals can find joy and meaning in the
absurd and mundane. * The Spectator *
A brisk, vivid narrative...Parkin's success in bringing this shabby
corner of Britain's wartime history to life is of more than
historical interest. * Times Literary Supplement *
Parkin's account, with its well-chosen central figures and
attention to the trauma that some of the imprisoned carried for
decades, is testimony to human fortitude despite callous,
hypocritical injustice -- Best Books of 2022 * New Yorker *
Riveting . . . a truly shocking story of what officials are wont to
term 'national misjudgment' is electrifyingly told by the
journalist and historian Simon Parkin, whose breadth and depth of
original research has produced an account of cinematic vividness --
Juliet Nicolson * New York Times Book Review *
Parkin's rich and vivid account makes clear just how much the
displaced artists did suffer, and the remarkable resilience and
creativity with which they responded -- Matthew Reisz * Observer
*
Excellent . . . Parkin has told his story with energy and flair . .
. A powerful tribute to the wartime internees, and a timely
reminder of how much Britain gained from their presence -- Charlie
English * Guardian *
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