Customer Reviews

Fear Drive My Feet

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This book by Peter Ryan is amazing. A story of one man patrolling in New Guinea in WW2 with natives, trying to obtain as much information as possible about the enemy, while working behind the enemy lines for more than a year. Highly recommended.

Quite simply one of the most exciting reads possible about one man on a large island (Bougainville) and the Japanese Army that gradually hems him in.

Plenty of heartstopping moments and many times after putting it down, you ask yourself... "what would I do.....?"

Jungle, deep inpenetrable, rough trails which traverse the island over high mountain ranges, waiting for resupply from air at night on a lonely hilltop, knowing that if you die, you die alone --- it is all here.

A shame books like this are not written anymore.

I was given a very old,battered Trash and Treasure copy of this book, and frankly was not interested in WW2 stories.However, one day I started it and within a page or too my heart was pounding with fear and exertion, mozzies were biting and it was steaming hot, hot, hot. I became the 18 year old (18! Good grief!, a mere baby ,a schoolboy) sent by a ignorant command into largely uncharted , enemy controlled desperatly physically difficult territory, and ALONE! What madness, but thank goodness Peter Ryan survived to tell the tale so brilliantly. and to have a distinguished career in academic publishing. A friend of a friend was able to get my copy autographed for me, quite a thrill.

Fear Drive My Feet is an extraordinary tale of survival. Peter Ryan, then 18, spent a year alone, fighting against the Japanese in the jungle of New Guinea with nothing but his wits and the tenuous support of the local people. Eventually the Japanese became too dominant and Ryan had to flee across highlands of New Guinea - a dangerous feat in itself.

Apart from the tale of survival, the book is notable for its anthropological insights into the New Guinean people. Given Ryan's age, he showed incredible maturity and wisdom. His survival was a testament to his ability to appreciate the culture of the various New Guinean tribes instead of seeing them as primitive peoples.