James Clavell

James Clavell (10 October 1921 – 6 September 1994), born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell, was an Australian-born British (later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is known best for his The Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations. Clavell was a screenwriter for movies as The Great Escape (1963) and To Sir, with Love (1967). He also wrote an episode of an early science fiction TV series 'Men Into Space' during 1959, titled 'First Woman on the Moon'. 2Early 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 captor