THE WORLD IS SIX FEET SQUARE

This restricted ""six feet square"" denotes a prison cell- or many cells occupied by Britisher Alan Caillou and his companion, after capture behind enemy lines in the African desert. Escape, re-capture, death sentence, shift from war camp to civil prison, from Germans to Italians, all add up to a gripping true-life adventure. Equipped with radios, some money and food, two youths, shrouded in Arab bournous over uniforms, were sent into a German sandwich between the 8th Army and the 1st. Sold out by a sheik, they managed to destroy their incriminating equipment, before being captured. Prison conditions were filthy, food appalling. The patience, humor, edginess of frayed nerves, the mounting suspense as they planned escape, frazzle the reader's nerves, too. But they managed a get-away-only to be caught again by a sentry in the dark. Shipped to Naples, thence to Gaeta prison near Rome, they were thrown in with assassins, madmen and their fellows -- and sentenced to death. War news trickles through. The collapse of Italy gives them opportunity and they escape in the melee of a riot. Finally, after working through the German lines, they reached the British- drinking tea in an empty village. Strong meat in spots, this is a gripping yarn. The suspense is helped by economy in writing and a sense of the dramatic.