Dear Bernard, Just read Sharpe's Waterloo and noticed a character in there called Dunnet who spent most of the war as a P.O.W. The book remarks how bad he looked. Apart from your work, I also enjoy reading true stories about prisons/human endurance, "papillon" being a prime example. In the French penal colonies the treatment of the prisoners was absolutely horrendous even in a relatively modern age of 1930's. This makes me think back to how Dunnet would have been treated as a POW in Sharpe's era. Do you know much about this? Where they were imprisoned, conditions etc. Anything you could let me know; further reading would be helpful. By the way, nearly done with Sharpe now. Which of your works do you recommend I should start on next? Many thanks, Paul.
As an officer Dunnet would have been treated well. He would almost certianly have been sent to Verdun and would have been free to live wherever he liked within the town limits, wear his uniform, carry a sword, and enjoy whatever amenities the town had to offer - so long, of course, as he gave his parole, which was a promise not to escape. The British officers in Verdun had a Literary and Philosophical Society among other things. French officers were usually placed in Edinburgh under very similar terms. So not bad, on the whole, but the uncommissioned ranks had a lousy time. French and American prisoners were put in the middle of Dartmoor and forced to build their own prison - Princetown - still there, of course, and others were kept on 'the hulks' decommissioned warships moored in rivers - damp, rat-infested, ghastly. So Dunnet was probably looking bad because he drank too much the night before. I don't know a book on the subject - I've just picked up stuff as I've gone along. A recommendation? The Winter King.