Living Hell: The Prisoners of Santo Thomas (Based on the Diaries of Isla Corfield

By Celia Lucas

Santo Tomas Internment Camp.

Once a university campus in Manila, from 1942 to 145 it was the largest prison camp in the Philippines, a place where civilians were placed by the Japanese. 

But to the women locked up there it was something else. 

A Living Hell. 
More than 4,000 internees were held there from January 1942 until February 1945.

‘Living Hell’ is their harrowing story. 

The book is based on the diaries of Isla Corfield. 

An Englishwoman whose comfortable life in Shanghai was suddenly disrupted by the outbreak of World War Two, she fled with her daughter Gill on an evacuee ship.

But the ship was captured by the Japanese — and Isla and Gill would have to struggle to survive as prisoners of war in both Santo Tomas and Los Banos internment camps.

In the communities of the camps, Isla and her daughter experienced the extremes of both friendship and loss. Cut-off from information about the war and with no end to their internment in sight, the pair experience starvation, disease and desperation.

Finally liberated by the Americans after four years, Isla’s story is both humbling and life-affirming – the story of one brave Englishwomen’s battle to survive against terrible odds.

It is one of the great untold stories of World War Two. 

“An incredible story of bravery and will-power.” – Robert Foster, best-selling author of ‘The Lunar Code’. 

Celia Lucas is a writer of children’s fiction and biography. She is a journalist, feature writer and public relations consultant. Winner of Tir na Nog Prize 1988 she has also collaborated on a TV series with husband Ian Skidmore.

Available on Amazon  and USA