Sarban
Sarban is the pseudonym of John William Wall, an English author and former diplomat born on November 6, 1910, in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. He excelled academically, securing scholarships to notable institutions, including Jesus College, Cambridge, and later entered the British Consular Service, which took him to various Middle Eastern cities, including Beirut and Cairo. Wall began writing in 1947 and published his first book, "Ringstones, and Other Curious Tales," in 1951 under the pen name Sarban. His literary works often reflect his experiences in the Middle East, incorporating elements of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Notable publications include "The Sound of His Horn," which explores an alternate history following a Nazi victory in World War II, and "The Doll Maker," among others. Despite a prolific writing career, much of his later work remained unpublished during his lifetime. Wall retired from his diplomatic career in 1970 and continued to write until his death in 1989. His contributions to literature were later recognized with posthumous publications, including collections of his previously unpublished works.
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Sarban
Author
- Born: November 6, 1910
- Birthplace: Mexborough, South Yorkshire, England
- Died: April 11, 1989
- Place of death: Monmouthshire, England
Biography
Sarban is the pseudonym of John William Wall, who was born on November 6, 1910, in Mexborough, a town in South Yorkshire, England. He was the youngest of five surviving children born to George William Wall, a railroad guard, and Maria Ellen Moffatt Wall, a homemaker. As a youth he distinguished himself academically, earning scholarships to both the Mexborough School and Jesus College in Cambridge, where he began reading for English in 1930. Like many English men his age at that time he considered the possibility of entering the colonial service. He began studying Arabic privately, and upon graduating in 1933 he earned an appointment to the Levant through the Consular Service.
His first posting was to Beirut, where he served as probationer vice consul. For the next twenty years he held a variety of positions that took him to Jedda, Tabriz, Casablanca, and other cities in the Middle East, ultimately leading to his appointment as counselor at the British Middle East Office in Cairo, Egypt, until 1952. Wall married Eleanor Alexander Riesle on January 20, 1950.
Wall had begun writing stories in his free time in 1947, and in 1950 he tried to interest publisher Peter Davies in bringing out a book of his work. Davies rejected his novel The Discovery of Heretics but agreed in 1951 to publish Ringstones, and Other Curious Tales. The book is a collection of fantasies, some of whose characters and settings were modeled on the lands where Wall had traveled and on those countries’ myths and legends. The book appeared under the exotic pseudonym, Sarban, the origin of which is not certain but which Wall may have chosen to keep his literary endeavors separate from his diplomatic work.
Ringstones was reviewed well, and the following year Davies published The Sound of His Horn, a short novel that blended science fiction and horror in its projection of a savage alternate future following a Nazi victory in World War II. In 1953, Davies published The Doll Maker, a collection of three fantasies in the spirit of Wall’s first book. Wall’s ’only child, Jocelyn, was born in 1950, and his family and his diplomatic work consumed most of his time thereafter. He continued writing over the next twenty years but appears to have made no effort to publish his work from this period, including a novel from 1965 entitled The Gynarchs. a collaborative novel written with a friend in the diplomatic service, and the novel Sysgol, written in a personal code.
Wall retired as consular general of Egypt in 1966 but continued to work for the Consular Service. In 1970, he transferred back to England for a position in Cheltenham, which he held for six more years. He and his wife separated formally in 1971. Walls died in Monmouthshire in 1989. In 1999, Tartarus Press published a combined edition of The Sound of His Horn, and The King of the Lake, the latter a previously unpublished Sarban fantasy. The Sacrifice, and Other Stories, a collection of three previously unpublished novellas from the 1950’s, was published in 2002.