Sarban was
the pseudonym used by John William Wall, a diplomat for many years
stationed in the Middle-East. He was a man who acheived a great
deal in his professional life, coming from humble origins, but who
seems to have never shaken off a feeling of inadequacy. Wall
appears to have taken refuge in his writing, and his daughter
Jocelyn has suggested that he had something of a Jekyll and Hyde
personality. There does seem to be an outer and inner man; John
William Wall and “Sarban”. The former was known by friends, family
and colleagues as a conventional diplomat. The latter is a man who
can only be guessed at by the readers of his stories.
Sarban’s
sympathy appears to be with the “under-races” of The Sound of His
Horn, and
primarily with the gifted cripple in The King of the
Lake. Perhaps
he too felt that he was an outsider. However, the writer’s
attitude towards women has been construed as misogynist, but a
balanced reading causes one to doubt this generalisation. There is
much humanity in Sarban’s writing, and if Wall was unhappy and
frustrated in his personal life, Sarban was not bitter. The
portraits of Clare Lydgate in “The Doll Maker” and Daphne Hazel in
“Ringstones” are fully rounded and entirely sympathetic, a world
away from the trussed-up “birds” of The Sound of His
Horn and the
harnessed women of The King of the Lake. It is true, however, that
amongst the characteristic, sadistic eroticism of the latter
story, we are not quite sure at the denouement whether our
sympathy is being directed to the crippled dwarf or the two
unwitting heroines now within his power. There is here more than a
suggestion that there is something noble in the dependent
relationship between captor and captive, hunter and hunted. All
this serves to illustrate the difficulty in identifying a simple,
coherent subtext within these astonishingly brave and magical
fables.
A more
comprehensive bibliography can be found at www.sarban.co.uk
Short Stories/Novellas
Ringstones and other Curious Tales, Davies,
1951
(Includes:
A Christmas
Story: .
Capra: An adultress finds a lover from myth.
Calmahain: During World War II two children decide to
explore their fantasy world. The Khan: Set in Iran, an estranged
wife becomes lost and comes upon a palace owned by "The Khan".
Ringstones: A young girl is given the job of teacher for
three strange children in the north of England. The place and one
child in particular disturb her and she cannot leave.)
ditto, Coward-McCann (U.S.), [1951]
ditto, Tartarus Press, 2000 (350 copies)
(Tartarus
edition adds Number Fourteen: The followers of an obscure
South American religious cult gain curious influence over a
beautiful dancer in post-war London.)
The Sound of His Horn, Davies, 1952
(The Sound of His Horn: Alan Querdillion escapes a
prisoner of war camp only to find himself in an alternative future
in which the Nazis have won the Second World War. Against a sylvan
backdrop the legend of the Wild Huntsman is revived and genetic
experiments have created strange hybrids. Humans are hunted for
game, haunted by the sound of the Huntsman's horn.)
ditto, Ballantine (U.S.), 1960 (wraps)
ditto, Tartarus Press, 1999 (350 numbered
copies)
(Tartarus
edition adds: The King of the Lake: Two young English-women are
rescued from a Saharan sandstorm by mysterious horsemen and taken
to a secret underground Lake.)
The Doll Maker, Davies, 1953
(Includes:
The Doll
Maker: Clare
Lydgate attends a boarding school, and slips over the wall at
night into the grounds of a neighbouring estate. Here she meets
Niall Sterne, the doll-maker of the title. Clare soon learns that
he makes them so life-like, and can animate them, at the expense
of those young women who he models them upon. A House of
Call: A
traveller finds refuge in the snow at a hovel but appears to have
travelled back in time. The Trespassers: Two young boys enter a
private estate and meet a strange girl.)
ditto, Ballantine (U.S.), 1960 (wraps)
ditto, Tartarus Press, 1999 (250 numbered
copies)
The Sacrifice, Tartarus Press, 2002 (350
copies)
(Includes:
The
Sacrifice: A
young artist encounters an Eastern-inspired tragedy in an idyllic
English country garden. The Sea-Things: A marine mystery-story with a Red Sea setting.
Number
Fourteen: The
followers of an obscure South American religious cult gain curious
influence over a beautiful dancer in post-war
London. The
King of the Lake: see above.)
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