British lieutenant from the lower classes, the Camp Provost Marshall [MP], and the antagonist to Marlowe Percy Smedley-Taylor - British Colonel named Camp Commander, responsible to the Japanese for the P.O.W.s; later appears as a director of Struan's Holdings, MP, in subsequent book "Whirlwind". Two characters from King Rat also appear in Noble House (published 1981), a novel set in Hong Kong in the early 1960s, when Marlowe is a writer visiting Hong Kong to conduct research about the great British trading companies there. Grey, embittered by his failure to obtain a commission in the postwar British Army despite his suffering during the war, has become a radical socialist Member of UK Parliament and is also in Hong Kong on an official visit. Unknown to Marlowe, Grey has become a secret Communist and a Soviet agent who tries to thwart efforts to improve relations between China and the West. Film adaptation A film adaptation was released in 1965, the first of several of Clavell's novels to be so adapted. See also Changi (miniseries), fictional Australian POWs at Changi References King Rat. . 1962 American novels 1962 British novels Asian Saga novels Novels set during World War II British novels adapted into films Novels set in the 1940s Novels set in Singapore American novels adapted into films Novels about prisoners of war Books about imprisonment 1962 debut novels Japan in non-Japanese culture Michael Joseph books Little, Brown and Company books