Leon Garfield

Leon Garfield was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults.

Garfield's novels for children all have historical settings, mainly in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The novels were greatly influenced by both Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Garfield wrote his first book, the pirate novel Jack Holborn, for adult readers, but an editor saw its potential as a children's novel and persuaded Garfield to adapt it for younger readers. His second book, Devil-in-the-Fog, was the first of several historical adventure novels, typically set late in the eighteenth century and featuring a character of humble origins pushed into the midst of a threatening intrigue.

Besides adventure stories for various ages, some of Garfield’s books were retellings of famous stories, such as Greek myths and the works of Shakespeare (later animated for television). In 1980 he also wrote an ending for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a book Dickens left unfinished at his death in 1870.

Garfield's first marriage was short lived. Having met during WWII, Garfield's second marriage was to Vivien Alcock, a well-known children's author. In 1964 they adopted a baby girl whom they called Jane after Jane Austen, one of their favorite writers.

Garfield was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1985. On 2 June 1996 he died of cancer at the Whittington Hospital, where he had once worked.

-- adapted from Wikipedia