''South by

Java Head Tanjung Layar, formerly Java's Eerste Punt in Dutch, and Java's First Point, or Java Head in English is a prominent cape at the extreme western end of Java, at the Indian Ocean entrance to the Sunda Strait. Java Head is a bluff at the sea's e ...

'' is the third

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

written by

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

author

Alistair MacLean Alistair Stuart MacLean ( gd, Alasdair MacGill-Eain; 21 April 1922 – 2 February 1987) was a 20th-century List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist who wrote popular Thriller (genre), thrillers and adventure stories. Many of his novels hav ...

, and was first published in 1958. MacLean's personal experiences in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

provided part of the basis for the story.

Plot introduction

The story is set in February 1942, in the immediate aftermath of the

Battle of Singapore The Fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore,; ta, சிங்கப்பூரின் வீழ்ச்சி; ja, シンガポールの戦い took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Empire o ...

. As the British stronghold of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

falls to the invading

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

, a mixed collection of soldiers, nurses, fleeing civilians, a small boy, and at least one spy attempt to escape the burning city aboard the ''Kerry Dancer'', a battered freighter crewed by a disreputable captain and sailors. The ''Kerry Dancer'' is crippled by Japanese aircraft, and the refugees are rescued by the ''Viroma'', a tanker also fleeing Singapore; however, the ''Viroma'' is also sunk by the Japanese, and the survivors take to open boats on the open sea. Led by stalwart First Officer John Nicholson, they attempt to flee to safety across the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

, facing death by thirst and exposure, typhoons, and pursuit by the relentless Japanese. As tensions mount in the small boat, Nicholson realizes that they are equally at risk from traitors in their midst.

Reception

The ''New York Times'' said it was "crammed with action and realistically sketched backgrounds but there is a patchness about the escapes from tight fixes that makes ''South by Java Head'' a less credible chronicle of derring-do than its remarkable predecessors."

Film Adaptation

In 1957 producer Daniel Angel said that

Daniel Fuchs Daniel Fuchs (June 25, 1909 – July 26, 1993) was an American screenwriter, fiction writer, and essayist. Biography Daniel Fuchs was born to a Jewish family on the Lower East Side, Manhattan, but his family moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn whi ...

was writing the script for ''South by Java Head'' from a novel by Tom Carling, with Fox to finance. MacLean's publisher Ian Chapman had not felt the novel was up to the standard of ''The Guns of Navarone'' and was going to suggest to MacLean that he try another novel instead. However the film sale of the project led to the novel's publication. In January 1960

Buddy Adler E. Maurice "Buddy" Adler (June 22, 1906 – July 12, 1960) was an American film producer and production head for 20th Century Fox studios. In 1954, his production of ''From Here to Eternity'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture and in 1956, hi ...

announced he had bought the film rights for Fox as a vehicle for

Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing comedies, including '' Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1 ...

and $4 million would be spent on it.

Sydney Boehm Sydney Boehm (April 4, 1908 – June 25, 1990) was an American screenwriter and producer. Boehm began his writing career as a newswriter for wire services and newspapers before moving on to screenwriting. His films include ''High Wall'' (1947), ...

would write the script.New Guinness Film to Cost $4 Million The Washington Post and Times-Herald 20 Jan 1960: B10. No film resulted.

References

External links

Book review at AlistairMacLean.com
1958 British novels Novels by Alistair MacLean Novels set during World War II Fiction set in 1942 Novels set in Singapore William Collins, Sons books {{1950s-hist-novel-stub