Sarban (author)

Sarban was the writing name of UK writer and diplomat John William Wall (1910-1989). Wall's diplomatic career lasted over thirty years, but his writing career as Sarban was much shorter and ended in the early 1950´s. Sarban is described in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy as "a subtle, literate teller of tales, conscious of the darker and less acceptable implications that underlie much popular literature". His most famous story is the alternate history-novel The Sound of His Horn (1952) where the Nazis have won World War II and built amusement parks where they hunt genetically altered humans for sport. Sarban was also the author of two collections of fantasy stories, Ringstones and Other Curious Tales (1951) and The Doll Maker and Other Tales of the Uncanny (1953).