The Cage by Dan Billany and David Dowie          Longmans 1949

        The Cage is an unusual and poignant story which portrays with moving intensity the depths and ultimate resilience of the human soul. Dan Billany and David Dowie, its authors, have disappeared and their fate is unknown. Only this book, which they wrote as prisoners of war in Italy, came back to England.

    The first part of their story tells with a robust and satiric humour of the alien, degrading and wearisome world of The Cage—seventy yards square, surrounded by barbed wire, inhabited by a hundred and fifty men. But gradually the ingenious inventions and wild, half hysterical gaiety fade into the background and the story finds a deeper level in the struggle of two prisoners against the spiritual temptations of their frustrated and abnormally segregated life.
      The integrity and understanding, the original presentation and brilliance of the writing make this an impressive and moving contribution to the great literature that captivity has inspired.

The book jacket, is a reproduction of the packing paper in which the manuscript was wrapped when it arrived in England. Inside it bears the notice: Anyone who has information which may lead to the discovery of the fate of Dan Billany and/or David Dowie is asked to communicate with the publishers.

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