The Bridge on the River Kwai by the other prisoners. Julie Summers, in her book "The Colonel of Tamarkan", writes that Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers. He strongly denied the claim that the book was anti-British, although many involved in the film itself (including Alec Guinness) felt otherwise. Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the railway construction and POW camps described in the novel/film, stated in a 1962 book, "Through the Valley of the Kwai": "In Pierre Boulle's book "The Bridge over the River Kwai" and the
Alec Guinness characterisation of Smiley in subsequent novels on Guinness. One of Guinness's last appearances was in the BBC drama "Eskimo Day" (1996). Guinness won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in 1957 for his role in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" after having been unsuccessfully nominated for an Oscar in 1952 for his performance in "The Lavender Hill Mob". He was nominated in 1958 for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, for his screenplay adapted from Joyce Cary's novel "The Horse's Mouth". He was nominated for