Author Description

<b><i>The Moon Seems Upside Down</i> is a story of love and war told through the letters of Arthur Alan Mitchell, who served with the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion and later suffered as a prisoner of war on the Burma Railroad. The letters provide a unique insight into what the Second World War was like for Australian soldiers, and for the people who waited for them back home. </b><br><br><i>The war letters of Arthur Alan Mitchell 1939-45.</i><br><br>At the outbreak of the Second World War, Alan Mitchell was a foreman at McPherson's bolt factory in Richmond. Eileen Griffin was a typist at the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission. They had just met. He was 23 and she was 19.<br><br>In 1940, he joined the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, trained at Puckapunyal, fought the French in Syria and the Japanese in Java, and then suffered as a prisoner of the Japanese on the Burma Railroad. Alan survived the war and came home. He and Eileen married and the rest is history.<br><br><i>The Moon Seems Upside Down</i> is Alan and Eileen's story. It is a story of love and war told through the letters of Alan to Eileen. The letters are tender and funny, detailed and well-observed. They provide a unique insight into what the Second World War was like for Australian soldiers, and those who waited for them back home.