James Clavell
James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell; 10 October 1921[1][2] – 7 September 1994) was an Australian-born, British-raised and educated, naturalized-American writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television 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.
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Born in Sydney, Australia, Clavell was the son of Commander Richard Charles Clavell, a Royal Navy officer who was stationed in Australia with the Royal Australian Navy from 1920 to 1922. Richard Clavell was posted back to England when James was nine months old. Clavell was educated at The Portsmouth Grammar School.[3]
World War II[edit]
In 1940, Clavell joined the Royal Artillery, and received an emergency Regular Army commission as a second lieutenant on 10 May 1941.[4] Though trained for desert warfare, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 he was sent to Singapore to fight the Japanese. The ship taking his unit was sunk en route to Singapore, and the survivors were picked up by a Dutch boat fleeing to India. The commander, described by Clavell years later as a "total twit", insisted that they be dropped off at the nearest port to fight the war despite having no weapons.[5]
Politics and later life[edit]
In 1963 Clavell became a naturalised citizen of the United States.[5] 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 in 1981 he sent her a copy of Noble House 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."[36]
Between 1970 and 1990, Clavell lived at Fredley Manor near Mickleham, located in Surrey in South East England.[37]
Personal life[edit]
Clavell had three children. He and his wife had two daughters, Michaela and Holly.[38][39][40][41] Clavell had an affair with Caroline Naylen Barrett, who was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and an American G.I. father. They had a daughter, Petra Barrett Brando-Corval, born in 1972.[42] Barrett, the longtime personal assistant and later girlfriend of Marlon Brando, raised Petra in England; Brando legally adopted Petra in 1981.[43] She lives in London with her husband Russel Anton Fischer, a film producer.
Death and legacy[edit]
In 1994, Clavell died in Switzerland from a stroke while suffering from cancer. He was 72.
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.[44] The library was later closed pending the opening of a new facility in Salisbury, Wiltshire;[45] however, James Clavell Square on the Royal Arsenal development on Woolwich riverside remains.