James Clavell

Early life and World War II

Born in Australia, Clavell was the son of Commander Richard Charles Clavell, a British Royal Navy officer who was stationed in Australia on secondment to the Royal Australian Navy from 1920 to 1922. Clavell was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School. During 1940, aged 19, Clavell joined the Royal Artillery, and was sent to Malaya to fight the Japanese. Wounded by machine gun fire, he was eventually captured and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore.

Clavell suffered greatly at the hands of his Japanese captors. According to the introduction to Clavell's novel King Rat (1962), over 90% of the prisoners who entered Changi never walked out. Clavell was reportedly saved, along with an entire battalion, by an American prisoner of war who later became the model for "The King" in King Rat. By 1946, Clavell became a captain, but a motorcycle accident ended his military career. He enrolled with the University of Birmingham, where he met April Stride, an actress, whom he married during 1949 (date of marriage sometimes given as 1951).

Peter Marlowe

Peter Marlowe is a character of the Clavell novels King Rat and Noble House (1981); he is also mentioned once (as a friend of Andrew Gavallan's) in the novel Whirlwind (1986). Featured most prominently in King Rat, Marlowe is an English prisoner of war in Changi prison during World War II. In Noble House, set two decades later, he is a novelist researching a book about Hong Kong. Marlowe's ancestors are also mentioned in other Clavell novels. The character Marlowe the novelist is an obvious reference to Clavell; in Noble House he is mentioned as having written a novel about Changi which, although fictionalized, is based on real events (like those in King Rat). When asked which character was based on him, Marlowe answers; "Perhaps I'm not there at all", although in a later scene, he admits he was "the hero, of course".

Film industry

During 1953, Clavell and his wife immigrated to the United States and settled in Hollywood. Clavell scripted the science-fiction horror movie The Fly (1958) and wrote a war movie, Five Gates To Hell (1959). Clavell was nominated for a Writers Guild Award for The Great Escape (1963). He also screenwrote, directed, and produced the box office success, To Sir, With Love (1967), featuring Sidney Poitier and based on E. R. Braithwaite's semi-autobiographical 1959 book.

Clavell's daughter Michaela appeared briefly as Penelope Smallbone, Moneypenny's would-be successor, in the James Bond 007 movie Octopussy (1983). The character, however, was apparently not popular and was ended after the movie.

Movies

Novelist

Clavell's first novel, King Rat (1962), was a semi-fictional account of his prison experiences at Changi. When the book was published it became an immediate best-seller, and three years later it was adapted as a movie. His next novel, Tai-Pan (1966), was a fictional account of Jardine Matheson's successful career in Hong Kong, as told via the character who was to become Clavell's heroic archetype, Dirk Struan. Struan's descendants were characters in almost all of his following books. Tai-Pan was adapted as a movie during 1986.

Clavell's third novel, Shōgun (1975), is set during 17th century Japan and relates the story of an English navigator, based on that of William Adams. When the story was made into a TV mini-series during 1980, produced by Clavell, it became the second highest rated mini-series in history with an audience of more than 120 million.

Clavell's fourth novel, Noble House (1981), became a best-seller that year and was made into a 1988 miniseries.

After the success of Noble House, Clavell wrote The Children's Story (1981) (an adaptation of his 1964 story), Thrump-o-moto (1985), Whirlwind (1986), and Gai-Jin (1993).

Novels

The Asian Saga consists of seven novels:

1. King Rat (1962): Set in a Japanese POW camp in Singapore, 1945.
2. Tai-Pan (1966): Set in Hong Kong, 1841.
3. Shōgun (1975): Set in feudal Japan, 1600.
4. Noble House (1981): Set in Hong Kong, 1963.
5. Whirlwind (1986): Set in Iran, 1979.
6. Gai-Jin (1993): Set in Japan, 1862.
7. Escape: The Love Story from Whirlwind (1994), short novel adapted from Whirlwind (1986).

Children's stories

Non-fiction

Interactive fiction

Politics and later life

During 1963, Clavell became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Politically, he was said to have been an ardent individualist and proponent of laissez-faire capitalism, as many of his books' heroes exemplify. Clavell admired Ayn Rand, founder of the Objectivist school of philosophy, and sent her a copy of Noble House during 1981 inscribed: "This is for Ayn Rand—- one of the real, true talents on this earth for which many, many thanks. James C, New York, 2 September 81."

Death

During 1994, Clavell died in Switzerland, from a stroke while suffering from cancer. He died one month before his 73rd birthday. After sponsorship by his widow, the library and archive of the Royal Artillery Museum at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich in southeast London was renamed the James Clavell Library in his honour. The library was later closed pending the opening of a new facility in Salisbury, Wiltshire; however, James Clavell Square on the Woolwich riverside remains.