James Clavell

Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell (10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994), known as James Clavell, was a British and American writer, filmmaker and a British Army officer during the Second World War. He is best known for his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television and film adaptations. Clavell also wrote such screenplays as those for The Fly (1958), based on the short story by George Langelaan, and The Great Escape (1963), based on the personal account of Paul Brickhill.

He directed the popular 1967 film To Sir, with Love, for which he also wrote the script. During his war service, Clavell was a prisoner-of-war to the Imperial Japan at Changi Prison, which formed the basis of his semi-autobiographical novel King Rat (1962) and its 1965 film adaptation.