Hazel Gaynor – The Bird In The Bamboo Cage

‘The Bird In The Bamboo Cage’ by Hazel Gaynor is a historical fiction novel that is based on true events. I read the blurb and saw the cover and was immediately struck with the fact that this story is about what happened to the children of World War Two in China and the fact that the Girl Guides are part of the story. I am a Guider myself so this immediately piqued my interest.

This book is told from a child and one teacher’s perspective. It tells us about the way the conditions they lived in, went downhill as the Japanese army arrived at the school. This is the point they had to all go into an internment camp. The fact that all the children were either Brownies or Guides helped the transition. They used the ‘Be Prepared’ and the Can-Do attitude alongside the Brownie handbook to attempt to turn these horrific times on its head. Elspeth really tried to create ‘fun’ challenges for the girls to distract from the scary situation they found them in.

During their time in the camp, Elspeth and her other colleagues do their utmost to protect the children from the barbaric actions of certain Japanese soldiers. During the time they spend in the camp, Hazel Gaynor has skilfully weaved the real-life story of the Olympian athlete Eric Liddell who was sent to the same camp. This arrival feeds into the Guiding philosophy and gives the children inspiration to carry on. We are witness to how they cleverly kept themselves alive and stopped themselves spiralling downwards.

This is a book I am so happy to have had the opportunity to read. We always hear about the children of Europe and the Jewish community but the Japanese internment camps are not as widely known about. I only know Tenko from the ’80s, that has tackled anything including Japanese Prisoners of war, that is it. I was horrified throughout this book at the way the children, and teachers found the degradation of their lives amid the Japanese regime.

I was heartbroken with the adults when the reality of their situation hit home but was beaming with pride at the Guiding backbone running through both adults and children.

This is such an inspirational story and I applaud Hazel for managing to bring the forgotten Prisoners Of War in the Japanese Internment Camps of the time, into the spotlight! Beautifully written and a must-read story for all. With thanks to Random Things Tours and to the publisher for the ARC to give my review for the blog tour.