Doug Heywood was a grown man when he discovered, in a shoe box hidden in a wardrobe, a time capsule of sorts – hundreds of letters, all written by his father, Scott Heywood, to his mother, Margery. Scott, a POW on the infamous Burma Railway, wrote letters almost daily to his young wife, on scraps of paper that had to be hidden from guards. These letters tell us of an enduring love - and also, intriguingly, they tell us how Scott managed to make it through the most brutally testing circumstances.
Scott's story bears an uncanny resemblance to another story, coincidentally happening 7000 kilometres away. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist, was rounded up with his family and sent to Auschwitz in September 1942.
'Everything can be taken from a man but one thing,' Frankl wrote, 'the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.'
Scott Heywood and Viktor Frankl, on opposite sides of the world, had seen the accepted structures and certainties of their worlds turned upside down. Each faced his own psychological challenge; each responded to the life force of survival.
Frankl's story has been told, not so that of Scott Heywood and his journey on the Burma Railway. This is the singular story of one man, one relatively ordinary man, and his war. But much, much more than that, it's a book about how Scott Heywood is a shining example of how love, optimism and determination can get you through even the very worst, most physically and mentally challenging times.
Join bestselling author Peter Rees and Sue Langford as they discuss this extraordinary tale, in conversation with Sally Pryor, Features Editor, The Canberra Times.
Tickets: $10
Peter Rees has had a long career in journalism, working as federal political correspondent for The West Australian and The Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of The Boy from Boree Creek - The Tim Fischer Story; Tim Fischer's Outback Heroes; Killing Juanita (Winner of the 2004 Ned Kelly award for true crime); The Other Anzacs/Anzac Girls (the book that inspired the ABC TV series); Desert Boys; Lancaster Men; The remarkable life of Charles Bean (awarded The Nib Anzac Centenary Literary Prize for 2015, and the Fellowship of Australian Writers' 2015 prize for non-fiction); and The Missing Man: From the outback to Tarakan, the powerful story of Len Waters, Australia's first Aboriginal fighter pilot.
Sue Langford has been a practising psychologist for more than thirty years, the past twenty of which have been in private practice, working in both clinical and organisational roles. She has provided consultancy services to the Department of Defence and other government agencies over the years. Her particular interest is in trauma management.
Sally Pryor is a born-and-bred Canberran, and features editor at The Canberra Times, where she has worked for more than a decade.