Marlowe's languages, intelligence, honesty and winning personality cause the King to befriend him and attempt to involve him in black market deals, which bring Marlowe to the attention of Robin Grey, a British officer and Provost Marshal of the camp, who has developed a Javert-like obsession with the King and hopes to arrest him for violating camp regulations. Marlowe comes to the attention of the 'King', an American corporal who has become the most successful trader and black marketeer in Changi, when the King sees him conversing in Malay. Peter Marlowe, a young British RAF Flight Lieutenant, has been a P.O.W. Two characters from King Rat also appear in Noble House.
King Rat was the first book published of Clavell's sweeping series, the Asian Saga, and the fourth chronologically. One of the major characters, Peter Marlowe, is based upon Clavell's younger self.ĭespite its fearsome reputation, Changi was among the better-run Japanese camps, with only 850 deaths among the 87,000 prisoners who passed through.
Set during World War II, Clavell's literary debut describes the struggle for survival of British, Australian, Dutch, New Zealand and American prisoners of war in a Japanese camp in Singapore-a description informed by Clavell's own three-year experience as a prisoner in the notorious Changi Prison camp. King Rat is a 1962 novel by James Clavell.
