Courage Be My Friend: The Vivian Bullwinkel Story

Sister Vivian Bullwinkel was the only survivor of the Bangka Island massacre during World War II. Her evocative story is told through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Edith ‘Edie’ Kenneison.

Sister Bullwinkel enlisted in the Australian Army Nurse Service at the outbreak of World War II and was posted to Singapore. In February 1942, she and hundreds of others attempted to escape the advancing Japanese army but was captured and held as a prisoner of war. Vivian spent the next three years in captivity, working tirelessly to help her fellow prisoners. One of those prisoners was young Edie. Their remarkable friendship would help them survive and became the basis of a lifelong bond.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
‘Davis has created a character who is a worthy role model for younger readers and is a heartfelt tribute to the unsung heroism of women and nurses during wartime.’ Read NZ Te Pou Muramura

‘It is a particularly sensitive tale of women involved in an appalling, brutal war, but it is also [a tale] of their indomitable spirit when they had to endure more than three years of starvation, illness, disease and the declining health and even death of their nursing colleagues under the callous watch of an uncaring enemy.’ Colin Burgess, author of Sisters in Captivity