Digger's Story

How do you survive when you’re beaten, starved and humiliated as a prisoner of war in a camp on the Thai–Burma railway? ‘You stick together, that’s what you do,’ says David ‘Digger’ Barrett. ‘You scam, lie, steal, cheat and hate the bastards with as much energy as you love and protect your mates.’

Digger was given his nickname at an early age by his father. It was prophetic: as an eighteen-year-old...