A Town Like Alice (U.S. title: The Legacy) is a novel by the English author Nevil Shute. It was first published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. The "Alice" in the title refers to Alice Springs, Australia.
It was made into a motion picture in 1956 starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, directed by Jack Lee. This film was known as Rape of Malaya in U.S. cinemas, and by various other titles in non-English-speaking countries.
In 1981, A Town Like Alice was adapted into a popular television miniseries, starring Helen Morse and Bryan Brown (with Gordon Jackson as Noel Strachan). It was broadcast internationally: in the United States, it was shown as part of the PBS series Masterpiece Theatre.
In 1941, The advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British. A group is sent on a forced march from place to place searching for a Women's Camp. Told from the point of view of one of the women, she meets an Australian soldier who sneaks food for them from his labor camp. After the war, she goes to Australia to see the town he was from and settles there, finding a different problem there from being a woman. Written by John Vogel
