25 The postal system in China was erratic: Ibid.
26 Liddell managed to contact her through convoluted channels: Ibid.
27 Cullen said that ‘almost every day’: Interview with Joanna Cullen-Brown.
28 Sermon writing was only a sliver: Letters to Florence.
29 ‘Persistent study’: Interview with Joanna Cullen-Brown.
30 His advice to everyone: EL, The Disciplines of the Christian Life.
31 Cullen disagreed: Interview with Joanna Cullen-Brown.
32 He believed Liddell’s progress: Ibid.
33 Cullen observed close up: Ibid.
34 Liddell took inspiration from diverse sources: EL, The Disciplines of the Christian Life.
35 The Sermon on the Mount: Ibid.
36 Liddell owned a postcard-sized picture: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
37 The Christ of the Mount: E. Stanley Jones (The Abingdon Press, originally published 1931).
38 Late in the summer of 1942: London Missionary Society archive.
39 By now the Japanese had bombed: Jonathan Fenby, The Penguin History of China.
40 Eric Liddell had never relaxed: Letters to D. P. Thomson.
41 The LMS enquired: Letter to Florence.
42 The repatriations turned out to be a sham: Interviews with EL’s daughters.
43 ‘Half the things we worry about never happen’: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
Chapter Fourteen
1 To be captive in Weihsien: Descriptions of the camp from: Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years; Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound; Myra Scovel, The Chinese Ginger Jars; Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard; Sister Ann Colette Wolf, Against All Odds: Sisters of Providence Mission to the Chinese (SoP, 1990); J. Bradbury, Forgiven but not Forgotten (self-published, 2000); M. Helsby and C. Helsby, He Goes Before Them … Even into Prison (OMS, 1993); P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky (Trappist Publications, 1984); M. Servatia, A Cross in China (Cuchullian Publications, undated); Raymond J. de Jaegher and Irene Corbally Kuhn, The Enemy Within: An Eyewitness Account of the Communist Conquest of China (Doubleday, 1952). Also, interview with Joe Cotterill.
2 Those going to Weihsien wrapped sentimental keepsakes: Ibid.
3 Internees found the Japanese brazenly stealing: Ibid.
4 The Japanese made sure photographers: Ibid.
5 It was 300 miles from Tientsin: Description of train journey: interview with Joe Cotterill.
6 On that same day: The Times, 1 April 1943.
7 No one put the sight of it better: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.
8 Ever the bright optimist: EL’s Red Cross letters to Florence.
9 In both outgoing and incoming mail: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
10 He was an ‘unruffled spirit’: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.
11 Another recalled him as ‘always cheerful’: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
12 ‘He never let anyone see him downcast’: Ibid.
13 Langdon Gilkey remarked: In Shantung Compound.
14 Internees were drawn into the camp: Ibid.
15 Every stratum of society was locked into it: Weihsien camp lists. The roll call up to 30 June 1944 lists 173 Roman Catholic priests, 176 missionaries, 20 nuns, 67 nurses, 10 Protestant priests, 19 Salvation Army representatives, four bishops (Catholic and Protestant), three monks, one Roman Catholic lay preacher, and three of other orders.
16 ‘Queuing for everything’: Mary Previte, Hungry Ghosts, and interviews with the author, as well as Joe Cotterill and Joyce Cotterill, Estelle Horne, Peter Bazire and Steve Metcalf.
17 There was no privacy: Ibid.
18 Territorial quarrels arose: Ibid., and Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound; Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard; Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years; M. Scovel, The Chinese Ginger Jars.
19 A few went as far as rubbing out the chalk: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.
20 As one captive said of these crude latrines: Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard, and interview with Mary Previte.
21 Since the English had always treated him well: Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years, and interview with author; Report of the Recent Developments in the Situation of Americans in the Orient, 14 May 1942 (National Archives); Concentration Camps, Occupied China, 1 May 1943 (National Archives).
22 Committees were promptly set up: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
23 The situation changed when the Japanese became aware: Interviews with Joe Cotterill and Steve Metcalf.
24 The sisters turned up the long hems: Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard.
25 A river ran beside the compound: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
26 The camp, however, did begin to take some sort of rough shape: Ibid., and with Steve Metcalf. Also, Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound; Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard; Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years, and interview with author; M. Scovel, The Chinese Ginger Jars.
27 A laundry was set up in the basement: Interview with Mary Previte; and Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard.
28 He put up a row of shelves: Interview with Joe Cotterill; and Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way. ‘He was the man we turned to’: Interviews with Mary Previte and Steve Metcalf.
29 Liddell was always being asked whether he’d be free: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
30 Liddell rose before it got light: Ibid.
31 Liddell’s advice was always: EL, The Disciplines of the Christian Life.
32 ‘I once saw him unloading supplies’: Interview with Estelle Horne.
33 These tattered and patched clothes: Ibid.
34 The internees had brought an eclectic collection of outfits: Interviews with Steve Metcalf and Estelle Horne.
35 The curtains he’d brought with him: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
36 The internees were able to shower only once a week: Interviews with Joe Cotterill and Joyce Cotterill, Mary Previte, Peter Bazire and Steve Metcalf.
37 There was no Pied Piper to combat the rats: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way. Also, interviews with Steve Metcalf and Mary Previte.
38 ‘Often we had to stand in lines for hours’: Ibid.
39 ‘A loud grunt and a pointed bayonet’: Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years, and interview with author.
40 One of the guards was known as Gold Tooth: Interviews with Joe Cotterill and Joyce Cotterill. Also, Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound; Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard; Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years, and interview with author; M. Scovel, The Chinese Ginger Jars.
41 The most unflattering label was pinned on a sergeant: Interviews with Joe Cotterill and Joyce Cotterill.
42 Those who cooked the meals: Interview with Mary Previte.
43 A woman found Golden Syrup: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
44 In error, one of the cooks: Raymond de Jaegher, The Enemy Within.
45 One family was fortunate: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
46 Such a beggarly diet: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
47 The Japanese allowed the establishment of a White Elephant Shop: Interviews with Joe Cotterill, Joyce Cotterill, Steve Metcalf, Mary Previte, Estelle Horne and Peter Bazire.
Chapter Fifteen
1 Liddell was asked by a fellow internee: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
2 ‘No. At my age I am a little past it’. Ibid.
3 As late as 1939: Interviews with Patricia and Heather Liddell.
4 An Australian Cistercian monk called Father Patrick Scanlan: Accounts of the black market and also propaganda from Scanlan’s own memoir Stars in the Sky; Raymond de Jaegher, The Enemy Within; Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound; Mary Scott, Kept in Safeguard; Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years, and interview with author; Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way, and interview with his sister, Estelle Horne; M. Scovel, The Chinese Ginger Jars.
5 Misinformation about the war was non-stop: P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky.
6 No matter how implausible: Ibid.
7 One maliciously mis
chief-making internee: P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky; Raymond de Jaegher, The Enemy Within; Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.
8 One of Scanlan’s colleagues: Raymond de Jaegher, The Enemy Within.
9 De Jaegher managed to get letters: Ibid.
10 Coolies also brought in information: Ibid.
11 ‘We presumed even its sports results weren’t true’: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
12 In saying so, the paper dropped place-names: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
13 Remarkably slow-witted: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
14 As a way of communicating it to the camp: Ibid.
15 ‘Our forced inactivity’: P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky.
16 The camp decided to stage late-afternoon athletics races: Interviews with Joe Cotterill, Pamela Masters and Steve Metcalf (in this instance relating the story he had been told after entering camp).
17 There was no space to create a track: Interview with Desmond Power.
18 He had once given Patricia a pep talk: Interview with Patricia Liddell.
19 He was spindly: Interviews with Joe and Joyce Cotterill.
20 Now Liddell wore his loose short-sleeved shirt: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
21 Aubrey Grandon, powerfully built enough to be nicknamed ‘Muscles’: Interviews with Desmond Power, Pamela Masters, Steve Metcalf and Doreen Grandon.
22 Winning over even the elderly ladies: Interview with Pamela Masters.
23 ‘You didn’t pour your own coffee’: Interview with Doreen Grandon.
24 After Weihsien, his father’s fortune long gone: Ibid.
25 Sportingly, Liddell gave his opponents a slight head start: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
26 The narrowness of the pathways made overtaking difficult: Ibid.
27 Not every missionary and Churchman: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.
28 The compulsive smokers: Ibid.
29 One man was desperate enough: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
30 Langdon Gilkey remembered: In Shantung Compound.
31 Another preacher Gilkey recalled: Ibid.
32 Early on Gilkey was called: Ibid.
33 The most divisive differences: Ibid., and P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky.
34 Aware of how the internees: Ibid.
35 Among them was eighty-two-year-old Herbert Hudson Taylor: Interview with Mary Previte, his granddaughter.
36 ‘We were not badly treated’: P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky.
37 The priest had geography on his side: Ibid.
38 He was also fortunate: Ibid.
39 Under the pretext of facing the wall to pray: Ibid.
40 ‘At first I made it a rule’: Ibid.
41 Eggs were particularly important: Interviews with Mary Previte and Estelle Horne.
42 ‘It tasted like crunchy chalk dust’: Interview with Mary Previte.
43 Tomatoes, apples, corncobs: P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky and Raymond de Jaegher, The Enemy Within.
44 One live goose was hurled over the wall: Ibid.
45 Some of the Chinese grew irresponsibly bold: Ibid., and also interview with Joe Cotterill.
46 Scanlan, hiding five dozen eggs: P. J. Scanlan, Stars in the Sky and Raymond de Jaegher, The Enemy Within.
47 Scanlan was forced to shut down the operation: Ibid.
48 Scanlan had taken his breviary: Ibid.
49 Then his luck ran out: Ibid.
50 Knowing nothing of Scanlan’s Trappist religion: Ibid., and also Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
51 Supposed to serve fourteen days: Ibid.
52 So his freedom was celebrated: Ibid.
53 The risk of conducting business became more dangerous: Ibid.
54 Liddell said cheerfully: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
55 The internees began to swap jewellery and trinkets: Interviews with Joe Cotterill and Steve Metcalf.
56 Others dealt with a hideously vulgar character: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way, and interviews with Joe Cotterill and Steve Metcalf.
57 He began willingly to donate the only valuables: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
58 The food Liddell got: Ibid.
59 Much later he also had his gold watch and chain valued: Speech made by A. P. Cullen at Liddell’s funeral.
60 A colleague called it ‘a sacrifice’: Ibid.
61 In the late summer and early autumn of 1943: Accounts by Scanlan, et cetera.
62 Liddell became ‘Uncle Eric’: Interviews with Joe and Joyce Cotterill, Mary Previte, Peter Bazire and Steve Metcalf.
63 ‘If he’d told us the moon was square’: Elsa Watson, BBC interview, not broadcast.
64 Liddell adopted whoever needed him: Interview with Joyce Cotterill.
65 A contemporary of Stranks’s: Interview with Peter Bazire.
66 One of Liddell’s friends in the dormitory: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
67 He hand-wrote an instructional book: Interview with Joyce Cotterill, who still owns the book.
68 Outside the classroom Liddell trained anyone: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
69 ‘The fallen hurdle left a gap’: Ibid.
70 When Liddell occasionally spoke of his family: Ibid., and also Joe Cotterill and Joyce Cotterill.
71 Liddell always locked away the sports equipment: Interviews with Steve Metcalf, Joe Cotterill and Joyce Cotterill. Also, Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way, and Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.
72 In the web of forced associations: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound, and interviews with Estelle Horne, Steve Metcalf, Joe Cotterill and Joyce Cotterill.
73 Gilkey said he regularly saw Liddell: In Shantung Compound.
74 Liddell encouraged a sixteen-year-old Greek: Interviews with Steve Metcalf and Pamela Masters.
75 God Remained Outside: The original title.
76 ‘My God … Why hast Thou forsaken me?’: Matthew 27.46.
77 His close friend in camp: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
78 As Weihsien deteriorated in every way: Ibid.
79 Dwelt on one passage: Ibid., and interview with Steve Metcalf.
80 He had told the story of the disciples: Matthew 18.21.
81 ‘They had missed the whole point’: Hawick News and Border Chronicle, 15 April 1932.
82 There were enough books: Interviews with Pamela Masters, Joe Cotterill and Steve Metcalf.
83 As well as the professional jazz combo: Interviews with Joyce Cotterill, Desmond Power and Pamela Masters.
84 The guards were at least mollified: Interview with Pamela Masters.
85 There were enough would-be thespians: Ibid.
86 Aside from culture: Interviews with Mary Previte and Steve Metcalf.
87 The Chefoo pupils: Interviews with Mary Previte, Peter Bazire and Estelle Horne.
88 Those who weren’t sporty: Ibid., and also Steve Metcalf.
89 In the search for entertaining speakers: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
90 At Christmas Liddell organized the distribution: Interview with Joyce Cotterill.
91 One man planted gladioli bulbs: Myra Scovel, The Chinese Ginger Jars.
92 One boy raised four peregrine falcon chicks: Ibid., and interview with Steve Metcalf.
93 One woman painted: Interview with Peter Bazire (speaking about his mother).
94 A snowy-coloured kitten: Interview with Mary Previte.
95 Students sat Oxford Matriculation Exams: Ibid., and also Estelle Horne.
96 Girl Guides and Brownies: Ibid.
97 Weihsien’s calorie count fell to barely 1,200: Ibid.
98 There were internees who foraged: Ibid.
99 One of the Japanese owned a nanny goat: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
100 A song called ‘Weihsien Blues’: Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way.
101 Some were desperate enough to attempt suicide: Pamela Masters, The Mushroom Years, and interview with the author. Also, interviews with J
oe Cotterill and Steve Metcalf.
102 Often overheard singing one of three hymns: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
Chapter Sixteen
1 Liddell was frequently seen staring at photographs: Annie Buchan, BBC interview.
2 The most poignant of Florence’s letters: Supplied by EL’s daughters.
3 In early July 1944: Annie Buchan archive.
4 In early May a new commandant took over: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound. ‘I thought: If I’m going to be shot’: Mary Previte’s conversation with her teacher.
5 In mid-June a pair of internees: Details of the escape from Raymond de Jaegher, The Enemy Within; Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound; Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way. Also, interviews with Joe Cotterill and Steve Metcalf.
6 Next morning the obstacle of camp roll call was cleared: Ibid.
7 The new commandant raged: Ibid.
8 Rations were slashed: Ibid.
9 The men without families: Interview with Joe Cotterill.
10 This was Weihsien as Buchan found it: Annie Buchan archive.
11 Buchan never forgot watching two boys fighting: Ibid.
12 One of those chosen: Desmond Power, Little Foreign Devil (Pangli Imprint, 1996).
13 A mule train arrived in Weihsien: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound, and Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way. Also, interviews with Joe Cotterill and Steve Metcalf.
14 Not only did Liddell look tired: Annie Buchan, BBC interview, and her archive.
15 ‘What is wrong with Eric?’: Ibid.
16 Buchan concluded that the ‘heavy responsibility’: BBC interview, not broadcast.
17 When a teenager was electrocuted on the camp’s barbed wire fence: Interviews with Estelle Horne and Joe Cotterill.
18 ‘He’d even find a way to beat us boys’: Interview with Douglas Sadler.
19 The Red Cross parcels arrived, galvanizing the camp: Interview with Steve Metcalf. Also, Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.
20 The race followed the same irregular route: Interview with Desmond Power.
21 Grandon was beside Liddell and comparatively robust: Interview with Steve Metcalf.
22 Liddell began predictably: Ibid.
23 An internee standing near the finish: Interview with Desmond Power.
24 The hospital was even short of medicine: Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound; Norman Cliff, Courtyard of the Happy Way. Also, interview with Joe Cotterill.
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