Leon Garfield’s Followers (49)

Leon Garfield

Born

in Brighton, Sussex, England, The United Kingdom

July 14, 1921

Died

June 02, 1996

Genre

Historical Fiction, Children's

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Leon Garfield FRSL (14 July 1921 – 2 June 1996) was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. He wrote more than thirty books and scripted Shakespeare: The Animated Tales for television.

Garfield attended Brighton Grammar School (1932-1938) and went on to study art at Regent Street Polytechnic, but his studies were interrupted first by lack of funds for fees, then by the outbreak of World War II. He married Lena Leah Davies in April, 1941, at Golders Green Synagogue but they separated after only a few months. For his service in the war he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. While posted in Belgium he met Vivien Alcock, then an ambulance driver, who would go on to become Leon Garfield FRSL (14 July 1921 – 2 June 1996) was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. He wrote more than thirty books and scripted Shakespeare: The Animated Tales for television.

Garfield attended Brighton Grammar School (1932-1938) and went on to study art at Regent Street Polytechnic, but his studies were interrupted first by lack of funds for fees, then by the outbreak of World War II. He married Lena Leah Davies in April, 1941, at Golders Green Synagogue but they separated after only a few months. For his service in the war he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. While posted in Belgium he met Vivien Alcock, then an ambulance driver, who would go on to become his second wife (in 1948) and a well-known children's author. She would also greatly influence Garfield's writing, giving him suggestions for his writing, including the original idea for Smith. After the war Garfield worked as a biochemical laboratory technician at the Whittington Hospital in Islington, writing in his spare time until the 1960s, when he was successful enough to write full-time. In 1964, the couple adopted a baby girl, called Jane after Jane Austen, a favourite writer of both parents.

Garfield wrote his first book, the pirate novel Jack Holborn, for adult readers but a Constable & Co. editor saw its potential as a children's novel and persuaded him to adapt it for a younger audience. In that form it was published by Constable in 1964. His second book, Devil-in-the-Fog (1966), won the first annual Guardian Prize and was serialised for television, as were several later works (below). Devil was the first of several historical adventure novels, typically set late in the eighteenth century and featuring a character of humble origins (in this case a boy from a family of traveling actors) pushed into the midst of a threatening intrigue. Another was Smith (1967), with the eponymous hero a young pickpocket accepted into a wealthy household; it won the Phoenix Award in 1987. Yet another was Black Jack (1968), in which a young apprentice is forced by accident and his conscience to accompany a murderous criminal.

In 1970, Garfield's work started to move in new directions with The God Beneath the Sea, a re-telling of numerous Greek myths in one narrative, written by Garfield and Edward Blishen and illustrated by Charles Keeping. It won the annual Carnegie Medal for British children's books. Garfield, Blishen, and Keeping collaborated again on a sequel, The Golden Shadow (1973). The Drummer Boy (1970) was another adventure story, but concerned more with a central moral problem, and apparently aimed at somewhat older readers, a trend continued in The Prisoners of September (1975) republished in 1989 by Lions Tracks, under the title Revolution!, The Pleasure Garden (1976) and The Confidence Man (1978). The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris (1972) was a black comedy in which two boys decide to test the plausibility of Romulus and Remus using one of the boys' baby sister. Most notable at the time was a series of linked long short stories about apprentices, published separately between 1976 and 1978, and then as a collection, The Apprentices. The more adult themed books of the mid-1970s met with a mixed reception and Garfield returned to the model of his earlier books with John Diamond, which won a Whitbread Award in 1980, and The December Rose (1986). In 1980 he also wrote an ending for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished at the 1870 death of Dickens, an author who had been a major influence on Garfield's own style.

He 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. ...more

Combine Editions
Leon Garfield’s books

Average rating: 3.83 · 3,841 ratings · 567 reviews · 117 distinct works • Similar authors

	Smith 3.77 avg rating — 995 ratings — published 1967 — 59 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shakespeare Stories 4.12 avg rating — 391 ratings — published 1985 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield, Edward Blishen, Zevi Blum (Illustrator) 4.09 avg rating — 215 ratings — published 1970 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Black Jack 3.94 avg rating — 183 ratings — published 1968 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Midsummer's Night Dream by Leon Garfield (Adaptor), William Shakespeare 3.63 avg rating — 189 ratings — published 1993 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	John Diamond 3.87 avg rating — 166 ratings — published 1980 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris 3.75 avg rating — 142 ratings — published 1978 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Devil in the Fog 3.79 avg rating — 113 ratings — published 1966 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Macbeth: From Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield (Adaptor), William Shakespeare, Clare Higgins (Narrator) 3.95 avg rating — 79 ratings — published 1989 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shakespeare Stories II by Leon Garfield, Michael Foreman (Illustrator) 4.21 avg rating — 72 ratings — published 1994 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Leon Garfield…

Series by Leon Garfield

Leon Garfield's Shakespeare Stories (2 books)
by

Leon Garfield,

Michael Foreman (Illustrator)

4.13 avg rating — 463 ratings

Harris and Bostock (2 books)
by

Leon Garfield

3.79 avg rating — 182 ratings

Apprentices (12 books)
by

Leon Garfield

4.01 avg rating — 128 ratings

Tim & Pistol (3 books)
by

Leon Garfield,

Trevor Ridley (Illustrator)

3.43 avg rating — 14 ratings

Quotes by Leon Garfield (?)

“Even the ancient mariner, with his wonderful tale, succeeded in stopping only one of three! No book is for everybody.”
― Leon Garfield

10 likes

“Innocence is no excuse in the eyes of the Law.”
― Leon Garfield, Smith

7 likes

“Panic was the death of thought.”
― Leon Garfield, The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris

tags: panic

3 likes

See all Leon Garfield's quotes »

Polls

2nd Quarter 2022 - Fantasy #3

The City of Dusk by Tara Sim, 512p, Mar 22nd release

3 votes, 27.3%

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke, 350p

3 votes, 27.3%

Last Exit by Max Gladstone, 400p

2 votes, 18.2%

The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb, 184p

1 vote, 9.1%

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, 496p

1 vote, 9.1%

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due, 346p

1 vote, 9.1%

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan, 496p

0 votes, 0.0%

Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, 497p

0 votes, 0.0%

The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield, 212p

0 votes, 0.0%

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox, 640p

0 votes, 0.0%

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski, 398p

0 votes, 0.0%

11 total votes

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Leon Garfield’s Followers (49)

Leon Garfield

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Leon Garfield’s books