Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell was born on 10 October 1921 in Sydney, Australia, the son of Richard Charles Clavell, a captain in the British Royal Navy, and his Irish wife, Eileen Ross. James was a nickname and later his pen-name. His parents returned to Britain when he was nine months old and the family settled in Portsmouth.
Clavell published numerous novels - Tai-Pan (1966), King Rat (1962), Shogun (1975) - with Asian settings but none with Australian themes or settings. He is not considered an Australian writer.
