286:(1946), may shed some light on Auden's critique: "When I was a boy at school I had written a story about a man and a woman. The English master was a poet with a great understanding of human nature, and in red ink at the end he had written, 'Yes, my dear, but people do not fall in love as quickly as all that, you know.' I think my characters had declared their mutual love at a second meeting." His later novels allude to school bullying, and a fictional character mentions a painful separation from his mother, instances that may give some flavour of his own experience of boarding school. (The Downs Malvern, where he was a pupil from the age of nine, is a considerable distance from Hale.)
403:, was a murder mystery set during the war. Jasper Doyle, an intelligence officer formerly of Scotland Yard, is posted to Fenmallham Airdrome, England, from which RAF bombers depart for missions over occupied Europe and Germany. In reviewing some photos taking during a bombing run over Berlin he spots what looks suspiciously like a body - which seems to have been very neatly disposed of indeed . . . . The setting is keenly observed, as are the many convincing characters.
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435:, departs from the Mumbai setting of the novel, but provides visual interest, and complements the novel by providing a rich portrait of the city and of Indian life. The novel and film were sufficiently successful that Mason was subsequently able to devote himself entirely to writing and travel, including visits to the Caribbean and Polynesia.
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apparent in all of Mason's novels, deft and often touching characterisation, and a love story that explores the difficulties inherent in a relationship between a respectable
British artist and a Hong Kong prostitute, forced into the trade from economic necessity. (China had been embroiled in a turbulent
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The film differs significantly from the novel in a number of ways (Lomax, for example, is transformed into an
American, a major character is omitted altogether, and Suzie's travails with the legal system and health make no appearance). However, filmed on location, it is full of visual interest. Mason
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compounded by
Japanese invasion in the period immediately preceding the events of the novel.) The psychological pressures bearing upon the essentially conservative Suzie, and the social consequences for her lover Robert Lomax, are particularly well developed. Mason, however, felt that the novel fell
515:
Mason wrote the first draft of the novel in Hong Kong in three months in 1956, but upon returning to
England he felt he had been too close to the material to judge it properly and put the manuscript away in a cabinet. Setting this draft behind him, he rewrote the entire novel from scratch over the
490:, for example, calling it "extremely readable" and noting that it was "written with uncommon skill and intelligence." It also added a somewhat controversial expression, "Suzie Wong" (a seductive East Asian woman), to the English language. It was quickly adapted into a 1958 Broadway play, starring
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In the early 1970s, Mason returned to Rome, where he met his third wife Margot ("Maggie") Wolf in 1972, with whom he had a son, Theo, and a daughter, Jessica. The couple were popular hosts, and Mason worked on his sculpting from a rooftop workshop and garden. "After Suzie, the ideas just wouldn’t
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In search of inspiration for his next book, he suspected that he would find it in Hong Kong. "I had felt I needed background for a book and something in me said Hong Kong was a place where I would immediately find material, so I simply bought a ticket," he commented to an interviewer. Mason's
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The primary setting is a hotel brothel called Nam Kok, based on the actual Luk Kwok hotel where Mason himself stayed. (The hotel has since been replaced by an upscale concrete and glass construction that bears no resemblance.) The novel's success owes much to psychological insight, a strength
445:(also written as Richard Lakin, 1947). Easily the most charming of Mason's novels, it details the amusing experiences of a newly-formed husband and wife detective team as they attempt to determine the fate of a missing person.
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in 1948. (The character "Peter" featured in it was based on his friend Lyons, while the
Michael Quinn character is transparently himself.) Mason also did a surprisingly competent job of writing the screenplay for the
379:(near Percy Shelley), where his headstone is inscribed with the words "Though on the sign it is written: 'Don't pluck these blossoms'—it is useless against the wind, which cannot read". (This poem, quoted in
410:, was written in India between February and May 1944, sometimes in temperatures over 100 degrees, after the day's duties. It was based partly on his wartime experiences learning Japanese and won the
540:, it was to be his last. From this point forward he lived entirely on royalties earned from his publications and films and spent time learning sculpting from the Rome-based artist Robert Cook.
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as an intelligence officer, he was taught
Japanese in a three-month crash course taken in India, to interrogate prisoners of war in India and Burma. (The course was taken with life-long friend
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In the 1960s he restored an apartment in Rome and then went on to raise sheep on an estate in Wales with his second wife, Sarett Rudley, a television mystery writer best known for a number of
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literary circles. The two travelled through most of the countries of Europe, and logged 8,000 miles of travel in Africa in a second-hand car. They separated in 1958 and were later divorced.
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come. The book has been good for us, like an inheritance, really. We’re not rich, but we live comfortably", Mason remarked in an extremely rare 1988
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himself thought well of the film except for the performance of Holden, who he felt was nothing like Lomax, and "more like an
American banker".
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321:, where the 14th Army was indeed stationed. More RAF-related experiences found fictional expression in his first, pseudonymous novel,
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short of its potential and would have been stronger had he explored more fully life as it was then being lived in Hong Kong.
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458:(alternately titled "Storm over Jamaica"). In this time frame Mason also produced films and wrote several scripts. With
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was set in India and Nepal. Written in 1961 with the help of Sarett, while working in creative isolation on
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delight in his observations there did indeed inspire him to write his best-known book,
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After the war, in 1948, he eloped with and married the writer and
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teleplays. He was to remain close friends with both ex-wives.
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252:, was a British novelist best known for his 1957 publication
841:"The World of Suzie Wong – Broadway Play – Original - IBDB"
245:(16 May 1919 – 13 October 1997), published also under the
557:, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1943 (as Richard Lakin)
427:, make their first appearance here. The movie setting,
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90:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
1067:People educated at The Downs School, Herefordshire
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897:"Lazy, Yet Obliged to Write", V. R. J. Clinton,
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797:"BFI Screenonline: Town Like Alice, A (1956)"
719:. London: C. Lockwood & son. p. 488.
627:"A lecture to the Royston Pike group: Part 2"
8:
651:(Online ed.). Oxford University Press.
53:Learn how and when to remove these messages
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1087:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
1009:To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey
230:Learn how and when to remove this message
212:Learn how and when to remove this message
150:Learn how and when to remove this message
1057:Burials in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome
696:"Richard Mason, 78, 'Suzie Wong' Author"
678:"Sarett Rudley - Movies and Filmography"
452:, set in Jamaica, was filmed in 1958 as
99:"Richard Mason" novelist, born 1919
648:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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578:, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1949,
563:, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1946;
441:was followed by another mystery novel
305:from 1939 until 1944. Attached to the
289:He later attended St Marys School and
881:"Nancy Kwan - Movies and Filmography"
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642:"Cumming, (Felicity) Anne (1917–93)"
363:Long a cigarette smoker, he died of
88:adding citations to reliable sources
1072:People educated at Bryanston School
266:Born into a middle-class family in
462:, he wrote the screenplay for the
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1062:20th-century British male writers
1042:John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners
716:A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese
512:. It was Kwan's first film role.
385:A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese
34:This article has multiple issues.
1082:Deaths from lung cancer in Lazio
859:"The World of Suzie Wong (1960)"
639:Richard Davenport-Hines (2004).
617:, p.9. (Retrieved 17 July 2024).
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731:"The Wind Cannot Read (1958)"
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488:The Times Literary Supplement
313:, a Welsh photographer.) In
16:British novelist (1919–1997)
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498:, as well as the 1960 film
192:the claims made and adding
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753:"Passionate Summer (1958)"
615:Pew, J.Howard-62-44136.pdf
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412:John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
377:Protestant Cemetery, Rome
375:. He is interred in the
349:Alfred Hitchcock Presents
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926:, portrait, Unionsverlag
819:South China Morning Post
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334:public relations officer
990:The World of Suzie Wong
982:The World of Suzie Wong
962:The World of Suzie Wong
801:www.screenonline.org.uk
589:, Collins, London 1957
586:The World of Suzie Wong
576:The Shadow and the Peak
555:The Body Fell on Berlin
501:The World of Suzie Wong
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450:The Shadow and the Peak
425:The World of Suzie Wong
401:The Body Fell on Berlin
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323:The Body Fell on Berlin
255:The World of Suzie Wong
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595:, Collins, London 1962
741:on 13 September 2017.
399:Mason's first novel,
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84:improve this article
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448:Mason's next novel
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702:. 19 October 1997.
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1037:1997 deaths
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993:(1960 film)
985:(1958 play)
974:Adaptations
504:, starring
468:Nevil Shute
419:, starring
373:Rome, Italy
369:lung cancer
341:avant garde
311:Islay Lyons
280:W. H. Auden
1026:Categories
600:References
510:Nancy Kwan
272:Manchester
186:improve it
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39:improve it
580:film 1958
522:civil war
470:'s novel
358:interview
307:14th Army
202:July 2024
190:verifying
140:July 2024
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429:Red Fort
247:pen name
1001:Related
825:19 July
549:Fiction
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184:Please
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395:Career
319:Mumbai
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131:JSTOR
117:books
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827:2019
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268:Hale
103:news
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