Richard Mason (1919-1997)
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Richard Mason (May 16, 1919 - October 13, 1997) was a British novelist. Born near Manchester, he was educated in Dorset, then worked first on a film magazine and later for the British Council. The Second World War gave him a chance to learn Japanese and he became an interrogator of prisoners of war.
As an author Mason wrote The Wind Cannot Read which was finished during the Burma Campaign; The Shadow and the Peak (filmed as Passionate Summer, starring Dirk Bogarde); and The Fever Tree, a story of espionage set in India and Nepal.
His experiences while living in Hong Kong inspired him to write his most famous novel The World of Suzie Wong. This was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1958 starring William Shatner and France Nuyen, and later into a film in 1960 starring William Holden and Nancy Kwan.
Mason, a cigarette smoker, died of throat cancer in Rome, Italy.where he had lived for nearly 40 years.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Fiction
- The Wind Cannot Read 1948
- The Shadow and the Peak 1950
- The World of Suzie Wong 1957
- The Fever Tree 1962
