“Book Descriptions: "J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) wrote a play that incorporated some of his World War One experiences as an officer in the British army while being held as a Prisoner of War by Germany. The German and British governments reached an agreement in 1916 allowing a limited number of wounded and disabled British officers and soldiers to be transferred from German prison camps to isolated locations in neutral Switzerland. These men remained prisoners of war during their time in Switzerland and they were subject to being returned to the country that captured them. J. R. Ackerley was wounded May, 1917 and was captured by the Germans. He was sent in December, 1917 to Murren, Switzerland for part of his time as a prisoner of war where he was housed in one of the town’s nine ski resort hotels. Ackerley started writing The Prisoners of War while he was in Murren. He completed a first draft of the play while still a POW. There are a number of similarities in the details of the play that related to actual persons and incidents that Ackerley encountered during his nineteen months in the Alpine hotel prison. The Prisoners of War, a play in three acts, takes place in Captain Conrad’s sitting-room in a Hotel in Murren during the summer of 1918. The room description as well as the view out the windows at the back of the room are very detailed. Ackerley is also specific about the details of time, dates and character descriptions."” DRIVE
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