A Town Like Alice

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 to turn 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. 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...