- Later in the prisoner of war camp the Japanese had a rule you can't get your food until you have handed in 20 flies. Later flies began to be rare so he first made flies from tyre and then started a fly farm.

- Sent to the death railway he was ordered to carry a wooden viaduct with a bucket of creosolte. He had only one functional hand and one functional leg, the guard reached for a bamboo so he fled up to the top, but then he was paralysed with vertigo. The guard ran up and emptied the creosolte over him.. luckily a hat prevented his face been burnt. He woke up in the river as other prisnoners washed the creosolte off him. The Japanese decided he was no good for work so sent him back to Singapore, whereas with later prisoners just worked them to death.

From the Magic Circle webpage
- Fergus Anckorn was held as a PoW by the Japanese for over three years during the Second World War, helping build the infamous 'Bridge over the River Kwai'. Now aged 91, he is the longest serving active member of the Magic Circle. Having performed as a magician since he was a small boy, little did he know that his performing skills would save his life. During his time as a PoW, he sometimes did magic tricks for the guards and soon found that if he used their food as part of the trick, they let him eat it afterwards. A book about his life, Surviving By Magic is written by Monty Parkin

- "My regiment was 980 when we were taken prisoner and 250 when it finished. We didn't even get a chance to take our guns off the boats and so we were lambs to the slaughter," said Fergus. "I was blown up, I was shot, I survived the massacre, I was buried alive twice and I was up in front of the firing squad twice. Apart from that it was all right!
"For the first six weeks we had no food. We ate anything that moved - snails, slugs, crickets, snakes, cats, mice, dogs, grass, leaves - anything at all and that's how we kept going.

- "Their captors, the Japanese, were complicit in the prisoners' torture, as Fergus recalls." One day the Japanese decided to shoot five of us. Just for fun; there was no real reason for it. And they took five of us out and I was one of them and they took us into the jungle, stood us against some trees and got a machine gun out and put it on a tripod and aimed it at us. "We didn't have blindfolds or anything. And we waited for the bullets for ten minutes. You would've heard my knees knocking from here I tell you.” We were talking to each other; you know 'why don't they just get on with it, get it over with, when are the bullets coming' and then they decided against it for some reason or the other, thought better of it. They put the gun away, they took us back to the camp and when we got there we found the war had been over for three days. So now you know why I'm lucky."

- All too often though rather than face up to things we want to boot people out of our family. "Thieves ...lock 'em up forever", "Muslims they are all terrorists"

- No many muslims have strong views whether they be moderate or terrorists it comes from a sense of morality. We have to appreciate what we have in common, other apparently complete contrary views say those of the American government or politicians also come from moralities. We have to appreciate what we have in common, if you look at the basis or each sides moral code it's basically the same it's only the upper branches that are different. They all have a sense of justice, a sense of equality, they all believe that murder, stealing is wrong. Americans are concerned about Afghani girls not being able to to school, but Mo said that women have equal rights.

- A politician should begin from theis basis to be the politician for all people i.e. be a politician for morality, but appreciate that the upper branches of peoples morality might be different.

- A contrary study showed that for some pessimists a positive approach does not work www.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Norem/Quiz/quiz.html