Oswald Wynd, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Oswald Wynd

Scottish writer

Date of Birth: 04-Jul-1913

Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan

Date of Death: 21-Jul-1998

Profession: writer

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Oswald Wynd

  • Oswald Morris Wynd (1913–1998) was a Scottish writer.
  • He is best known for his novel, The Ginger Tree, which was adapted into a BBC televised mini-series in 1989.
  • Wynd was born July 4, 1913 in Tokyo of parents who had left their native Perth, Scotland to run a mission in Japan.
  • He attended schools in Japan where he grew up speaking both English and Japanese.
  • In 1932, he returned with his parents to Scotland and studied at the University of Edinburgh.
  • With the advent of World War II he joined the Scots Guards but due to his language ability was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps and sent to Malaya.
  • At the time of the Japanese invasion in Malaya, he was attached to the Indian Army on the east coast, and his brigade covered the final withdrawal to Singapore.
  • Cut off by the Japanese advance, he was lost alone for a week in the Johor jungle.
  • Eventually he was captured and spent more than three years as a prisoner of war in Hokkaido, Japan, during which time he was mentioned in dispatches for his work as an interpreter for prisoners. During his last year as a prisoner of war, Wynd began writing a novel entitled Black Fountains.
  • In 1947, the book, which details the experiences and impressions of a young American-educated Japanese girl recently returned to Japan as WWII unfolds, collected the first-novel Doubleday Prize and its $20,000 monetary award.After the war Wynd returned to Scotland, after having spent some twenty-three years of his life in the Far East.
  • He swore never to return.
  • Living in Scotland, first on an island in the Hebrides, then to a house overlooking the harbor in Crail, in Fife, he produced a steady stream of books, including the much admired The Ginger Tree and a series of highly successful thrillers under the pseudonym of 'Gavin Black'. In the late 1980s The Ginger Tree was turned into a television series by the BBC, with NHK, Japan and WGBH Boston, starring Samantha Bond as the protagonist. Wynd died July 21, 1998 in Dundee, Scotland.
  • He was 85.

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