James Gordon Farrell (23 January 1935– 11 August or 12 August 1979) was an Irish and British writer of historical novels. His most famous novels are his Empire Trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip), which all deal with attacks against British colonial rule. The Siege of Krishnapur won the 1973 Booker Prize. Farrell died in 1979 while fishing; a freak wave, the result of the same storm which killed 17 people in the 1979 Fastnet race disaster, washed him out to sea.