SOURCE: "James Clavell, Storyteller," in National Review, New York, Vol, XXXIV, November 12, 1982, pp. 1420-22.

In the following essay, based on an interview with Clavell, Teachout discusses Clavell's ideas on writing, political views, and his novels, particularly Noble House.

At 18, Sub-Lieutenant James Clavell of the British army was thrown into Changi, a Japanese prison camp in Singapore, where he spent the last three and a half years of the Second World War. At 29 he emigrated to Hollywood and made a name for himself as one of the most successful writer-producer-directors in town; he eventually became a naturalized American citizen. At 35, idled by a screen-writers' strike, he wrote King Rat, a novel about his struggle for survival in Changi. Three years later, when he sold the film rights to King Rat for a cool $157,000, Clavell pulled up stakes, headed for Hong Kong in search of inspiration—and found it.

Today...