This factual story is more gripping and entertaining than any fiction about Colditz could hope to be. Joseph Ellison Platt, a self-righteous Methodist preacher tried, and usually failed to keep prisoners on the straight and narrow.

As such, this is an incredible tale, not only of a unique place and time, but of a world in minitature, with all its postive and negative aspects. MacIntyre’s account may upend your understanding of conditions and practices in a Nazi POW camp—at least those in camps where only Western officers were imprisoned. It is set in a POW camp in Poland and portrays the real-life audacious escape attempt of 76 Allied airmen during WWII.He went to Cambridge and then on to The Times, where he soon became a foreign correspondent, and started writing books after being posted to New York in his early 20s. The idea of a "gentleman's prison" run in a gentlemanly manner during WWII was new to me, let alone one with an additional built-in culture of escape attempts. But when I went back to check the biographical details of Fowler, I could see that his mixed nationalities would make it hard to label him Australian and that Commonwealth is, in fact, the most accurate way to categorise him. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I'd never heard of Colditz until discussing the events of The Great Escape (movie and real life accounts) with my dad, and he mentioned a POW prison where the inmates had secretly made a glider in the attic.

Colditz, the medieval castle, located in the state of Saxony in Germany, is probably the most famous of the Nazi's POW camps in WWII. With plenty of humor but also grave sadness, Prisoners of the Castle is not only factual but emotional. For example, we learn some of methods this group of clever men utilized to spy on the Allies from prison. He suggests that prisoner boredom partly explains why there were more attempted escapes from Colditz than any other camp.

Several of his books have been made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS: Rogue Heroes.

Although there are reports of 174 who made their way outside the castle’s walls, only thirty-two of them reached home. There were larger-than-life characters, daring escape attempts, plenty of contraband, and no shortage of misery.

The ways in which they frequently worked in unison - in lieu of diversities and any misgivings - provides many lighthearted and inspiring moments for the listener/reader.

Eggers is extremely important in that he maintained a written history of the camp that Macintyre had access to. Giles Romilly, a nephew by marriage of Winston Churchill, was a journalist and communist captured in Norway. The population was comprised of Americans, Dutch, French and Polish and the groups tried to keep each other informed of their escape plans and shared ideas.Once he had two prosthetics, he immediately hoisted himself out of a window and hobbled off - even the Germans, who he aimed endless venom at, seemed impressed. Fowler was sent to Colditz in December 1941, and was one of six prisoners who got out in September, 1942, disguised as labourers. His posh background earned him admission to Colditz’s Bullingdon Club, an organization modeled on an elite dining club at Oxford University. It was interesting to see how the atmosphere and administration of Colditz transformed throughout the war, especially toward the end when it became apparent that Germany was losing. It does focus on a few of the prisoners, but there are many who come and go - whether by escape, transfer to another POW camp, or death.