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A Town Like Alice (U.S. title: The Legacy) is a novel by the British author Nevil Shute about a young Englishwoman in Malaya during World War II and in outback Australia post-war.
Written from the perspective of her Scottish solicitor and trustee, it tells the story of her time as a prisoner of war in Malaya, and her post-war life in a small outback community in Australia, which she sets out toturn into 'a town like Alice', Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.

It was first published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia.


|Contents |
|  [hide]  |
|1 Plot summary |
|2 Characters |
|3 Themes ||4 Historical accuracy |
|5 Critiques and rankings |
|6 Adaptations |
|6.1 Cinema |
|6.2 Television |
|6.3 Radio |
|7 See also |
|8 References |
|9 External links|


[edit]Plot summary

The story falls broadly into three parts.

In Post-World War II London, Jean Paget, a secretary in a shoe factory, is informed by solicitor Noel Strachan that she has a vast inheritance from an uncle she never knew. But the solicitor is now her trustee and she only has the use of the income until she inherits absolutely several years in the future. In thefirm's interest, but increasingly for his own personal interest, Strachan acts as her guide and advisor. Jean decides that her priority is to build a well in a Malayan village.

The second part of the story flashes back to Jean's experiences during the war, when she was working in Malaya at the time the Japanese invaded and was taken prisoner together with a group of women and children.

As shespeaks Malay fluently, Jean takes a leading role in the group of prisoners. The Japanese refuse all responsibility for the group and march them from one village to another. Many of them, unused to physical labour, die. Jean meets a young Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman, also a prisoner, who is driving a truck for the Japanese and they strike up a friendship. He steals food and medicines tohelp them. Jean is carrying a toddler, whose mother has died, and this leads Harman to believe that she is married; to avoid complications, Jean does not correct this assumption.

The thefts are investigated and Harman takes the blame to save Jean and the rest of the group. He is crucified, beaten and left to die by the Japanese soldiers. The women are marched away, believing that he is dead.When their sole Japanese guard dies, the women become part of a Malayan village community. They live and work there for three years, until the war ends and they are repatriated.

Now a wealthy woman (at least on paper), Jean decides she wants to build a well for the village so that the women will not have to walk so far to collect water: "A gift by women, for women".

Strachan arranges for herto travel to Malaya, where she goes back to the village and persuades the headman to allow her to build the well. While it is being built, she discovers that by a strange chance, Joe Harman survived his punishment and returned to Australia. She decides to travel on to Australia to find him. On her travels, she visits the town of Alice Springs, where Joe lived before the war, and is much impressedwith the quality of life there. She then travels to the (fictional) primitive town of Willstown in the Queensland outback, where Joe has become manager of a cattle station. She soon discovers that the quality of life in 'Alice' is an anomaly, and life for a woman in the outback is elsewhere very rugged. Willstown is described as 'a fair cow'.

Meanwhile, Joe has learnt that Jean survived the...