Alfred Nisbett

Always Tomorrow: Sempre Domani Alfred Nisbett

More than sixty years have passed since the end of the Second World War, yet remarkable individual stories continue to emerge. Alfred Nisbett's memoir is not so much a record of conflict as a document of common humanity, linking the individuals of divided nations. Called up to the Army in June 1940 as a sapper, Alfred soon finds himself in North Africa dodging the bullets from German and Italian planes. The day he is captured by a German tank unit is also the first time he witnesses acts of kindness and decency from his enemy - but not the last. Months of internment follow, always under Italian guard, first in Libya, then Italy. His account of this period is full of incident, both amusing and poignant. Though his first escape attempt soon ends in recapture, Alfred is undeterred and makes another bid for liberty. This time he is more successful - thanks largely to the generosity and bravery of the inhabitants of rural Italy, who bring food to his hideouts in the mountains and regularly invite him and other escaped POWs to their homes, despite the threatening German military presence. The wealth of detail in Always Tomorrow: Sempre Domani contributes a great deal to our understanding of one of the least publicised aspects of wartime experience. Throughout this narrative, though danger is ever at hand, compassion, courage and conviviality are never absent.