James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell (10 October 1924 – 7 September 1994) was an Australian (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, along with such films as The Great Escape and To Sir, with Love. Description above from the Wikipedia article  James Clavell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.