A gripping untold war story: using exclusive new archive material, letters and diaries, this is the story of the prisoners of war in internment camps during the Second World War.

Reviews 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

Compelling...In this "university of captives", Parkin has unearthed a small and riveting chunk of wartime history, easily overlooked. ― Daily Telegraph

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