John Masters Biography

British novelist, born in India, educated in England. After attending Sandhurst Military Academy he joined the Indian Army in 1934, retiring in 1948 having served in Burma and the Middle East during the Second World War. He began a series of novels with Nightrunners of Bengal (1951), about the Indian Mutiny, describing the history of the Savage family, which was based on his own. This was followed by The Deceivers (1952), also with an Indian theme; The Lotus and the Wind (1953); and Bhowani Junction (1954), which was perhaps his best-known novel, set at the time of Indian Independence. Coromandel (1955) and Far, Far the Mountain Peak (1967) completed the Savage family saga. There were many other novels, some set in the USA, where he lived from 1949, as well as two volumes of autobiography, Bugles and A Tiger (1956) and The Road Past Mandalay (1961).