My fiction reading for much of this past summer was James Clavell’s 1975 monster of a novel “Shogun.” Clocking in at 428,000 words, this beast of a book was roughly the size of all three “Lord of the Rings” novels combined. The author is survived by his wife of 43 years, April Clavell, and two daughters, Michaela and Holly.(A word of warning that this article gets deep into the plot particulars of “Shogun” and includes spoilers) His most successful combined effort of writing, producing and directing was “To Sir With Love,” a 1967 British film starring Sidney Poitier as a novice teacher in London. Later, he switched to screenwriting and had some success with such films as “The Fly” and “The Great Escape.”Ĭlavell also directed and produced.

I know I’m living 40 borrowed lifetimes.”Ĭlavell worked briefly as a salesman after the war and in 1953 moved to Hollywood to work on a television pilot. It gave me a strength most people don’t have. “The Japanese tore the heart out of me when I was 18,” he said in 1975. He spent three years in the Changi prison camp in Singapore, where only 10,000 of 150,000 POWs survived. He was a captain with the British Royal Artillery during World War II when he was captured by the Japanese.

citizen in 1963 and in his later years spent most of his time in Switzerland. “(He was) a man who was deeply imbued in tradition, and also enormous fun to work with.”Ī multinational writing industry, Clavell was born in Sydney, Australia, grew up in England, became a U.S. “He was one of the great epic storytellers of our age,” said Eric Major of Clavell’s London publisher, Hodder & Stoughton.

He propelled readers through lightning-paced 1,200- or 1,300-page tomes with a melange of obsessions with war and power, interlaced with international espionage, skulduggery and steamy forbidden sex. Whatever his trick, Clavell’s writing was never boring.

People see it there on the screen and remember it next time they’re in a bookstore.” “The trick,” he told The Times in 1988, “is to become a brand name. “Shogun” sold more than 7 million copies and the 1980 television series attracted 130 million viewers.Ĭlavell’s 1986 blockbuster set in Iran, “Whirlwind,” was auctioned for $5 million, a record at the time.

Shogun by james clavell review