James Leasor


James Leasor was a prolific British author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. A number of Leasor's works were made into films, including his 1978 book, Boarding Party, about an incident from the Second World War that until that time was secret, which was turned into The Sea Wolves starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven.

Biography

Leasor was born in Erith, Kent, in 1923, and was educated at the City of London School.
On leaving school, whilst waiting to join the army, he had his first foray into journalism as a cub scout reporter for the Kent Messenger. As soon as he was old enough, he enlisted into the Buffs. He was then commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment and volunteered for service in the Far East, where he served in Burma with the Lincolnshire Regiment during World War II. Whilst serving with the Lincolns he saw action in the Battle of the Admin Box. In the Far East, whilst sailing in convoy HC-44 from Calcutta to Chittagong, his troopship, the El Madina, was torpedoed on 16 March 1944 and he spent 18 hours adrift in the Indian Ocean. Ten crew, six gunners and 364 troops perished in the incident.
He wrote his first book, Not Such a Bad Day, by hand in the jungles of Burma on airgraphs, single sheets of light-sensitive paper which could be reduced to the size of microdots and flown to England in their thousands to be blown up to full size again. His mother then typed it up and sent it off to an agent, who found a publisher who sold 28,000 copies, although Leasor received just £50 for all its rights. He was wounded and then became a correspondent for the SEAC, the Services Newspaper of South East Asia Command, under the inspirational editorship of Frank Owen. His novel, NTR: Nothing to Report, is a semi-autobiographical account of some of his experiences in India and Burma during the war.
After the war, he went to Oriel College, Oxford, where he read English and edited The Isis magazine. He joined the Express after university and soon became private secretary to Lord Beaverbrook, the proprietor of the newspaper, and then a foreign correspondent.
He first came to notice as an author with a number of critically acclaimed histories. These included The Red Fort, his account of the Indian Mutiny, on which Cecil Woodham-Smith commented in the New York Times: "Never has this story of hate, violence, courage and cowardice been better told"; The One That Got Away, about the only German prisoner of war, Franz von Werra, to escape from Allied territory during World War 2, which was later filmed starring Hardy Kruger; The Plague and the Fire, about London's twin tragedies in the 17th century; The Millionth Chance about the loss of the R101 airship; and Singapore: The Battle that Changed the World, on the Battle of Singapore in 1942.
He became a full-time author in the 1960s, after the success of his novel, Passport to Oblivion, one of the best selling books of the 1960s, a thriller featuring Dr Jason Love. The story was filmed as Where the Spies Are in 1965 starring David Niven. He wrote several more thrillers featuring Jason Love, as well a string of other novels. He continued to write historical books, and later titles included Green Beach, about the Dieppe Raid in 1975; Boarding Party in 1978, which was filmed as The Sea Wolves; The Unknown Warrior, about an agent who was a major part of the D-Day deception plans; Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes?, made into a TV mini-series in 1989, called Passion and Paradise, starring Armand Assante, Catherine Mary Stewart, Mariette Hartley and Kevin McCarthy, with Rod Steiger playing Sir Harry Oakes; and Rhodes and Barnato, which was his final book, published in 1997.
He wrote a number of books under the pseudonym Andrew MacAllan, and ghosted a number of 'autobiographies' for people as diverse as King Zog of Albania, and British actors Kenneth More and Jack Hawkins.
Leasor married barrister Joan Bevan on 1 December 1951 and they had three sons. He lived for his last 40 years at Swallowcliffe Manor, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. He died in Salisbury on 10 September 2007, aged 83, and is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church in Swallowcliffe.

Jason Love novels

Aristo Autos novels

Robert Gunn novels

Other novels

Short stories