Diary of a Girl in Changi

Book excerpt: In 1941, at the age of seventeen, Sheila Allan's life was plunged into a nightmare. For the next three and a half years she was a prisoner of the Japanese in Changi Prison and Sime Road Camp. This book is the moving personal account of a young girl living in the midst of hardship and adversity. Written on scraps of paper which were kept hidden in her quarters, Sheila Allan's diary is a record of the daily lives of those interned in Changi. On the one hand, these were years of wasted youth; on the other, they provided a rich learning experience in a community of close comradeship. Tolerance, humour and creativity, and above all, an undying hope for the future, colour her memories of this period. This new edition includes information on the Changi quilts. These embroidered squares, individually created and signed by the women internees, were sewn together into three separate quilts. The quilts can be seen at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.