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
The Bridge on the River Kwai by former POW John Coast, sought to highlight the real history behind the film (partly through getting ex-POWs to question its factual basis, for example Dr Hugh de Wardener and Lt-Col Alfred Knights), which angered many former POWs. The documentary itself was described by one newspaper reviewer when it was shown on Boxing Day 1974 ("The Bridge on the River Kwai" had been shown on BBC1 on Christmas Day 1974) as "Following the movie, this is a rerun of the antidote." Some of the characters in the film use the names of real people who were involved in the Burma