I want to go back in time a little and pick up a series I read a while back and am still impressed with it. I read
King Rat in school for an assignment and then picked up all the books in the series.
I didn't care for
Whirlwind as much as the others, but hey, the others are very good.
I am speaking, of course, about
James Clavell.
From
wiki:
James Clavell, born Charles Edmund DuMaresq Clavell (10 October 1924 – 7 September 1994) was an Australian-born, British (later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his epic Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations.
Clavell's first novel, King Rat, was a semi-fictional account of his prison experiences at Changi. When the book was published in 1962, it became an immediate best-seller and three years later, it was adapted for film. His next novel, Tai-Pan, was a fictional account of Jardine-Matheson's rise to prominence in Hong Kong, as told through the character who was to become Clavell's heroic archetype, Dirk Struan. Struan's descendants would inhabit almost all of his forthcoming books.
This was followed by Shōgun in 1975, the story of an English navigator set in 17th century Japan, based on that of William Adams. When the story was made into a TV series in 1980, produced by Clavell, it became the second highest rated mini-series in history with an audience of over 120 million. In 1981, Clavell published his fourth novel, Noble House, which became a number one best seller during that year and was also made into a miniseries. Following the success of Noble House, Clavell wrote Whirlwind (1986) and Gai-Jin (1993) along with The Children's Story (1981) and Thrump-o-moto (1985).
Novels
The Asian Saga consisting of six novels:
King Rat (1962): Set in a Japanese POW camp in Singapore, 1945
Tai-Pan (1966): Set in Hong Kong, 1841
Shōgun (1975): Set in feudal Japan, 1600
Noble House (1981): Set in Hong Kong, 1963
Whirlwind (1986): Set in Iran, 1979
Gai-Jin (1993): Set in Japan, 1862
Several of Clavell's books have been adapted as films or miniseries; Shōgun was also adapted into interactive fiction.
Other books include:
The Children's Story (1980)
The Art of War, a translation of Sun Tzu's famous book (1983) - Don't get to keep this one apparently due to it being a translation of an earlier work
Thrump-O-Moto Illustrated by George Sharp (1986)
Escape (1994) – shorter novel adapted from Whirlwind
Love Story - from Whirlwind
I also get his film writing (in case I want to take up acting all the parts in a film at once, by myself, on my island).
In 1953, Clavell and his wife emigrated to the United States and settled down in Hollywood. Clavell scripted the grisly science-fiction horror film The Fly and wrote a war film, Five Gates to Hell. Clavell won a Writers Guild Best Screenplay Award for the 1963 film The Great Escape. He also screenwrote, directed and produced a 1967 box office hit, To Sir, With Love, based on the book by E. R. Braithwaite and starring Sidney Poitier.
Films
The Fly (1958) (writer)
Watusi (1959) (writer)
Five Gates to Hell (1959) (writer and director)
Walk Like a Dragon (1960) (writer and director)
The Great Escape (1963) (co-writer)
633 Squadron (1964) (co-writer)
The Satan Bug (1965) (co-writer)
King Rat (1965) author of the novel (only)
To Sir, with Love (1966) (writer and director)
The Sweet and the Bitter (1967) (writer and director)
Where's Jack? (1968) (director)
The Last Valley (1970) (writer and director)
Shōgun—miniseries (1980)
Tai-Pan (1986) author of the novel (only)
Noble House—miniseries (1988)
pm sent