Leon Garfield FRSL was a British writer of fiction.
11 Facts About Leon Garfield
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Leon Garfield is best known for children's historical novels, though he wrote for adults.
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Leon Garfield wrote more than thirty books and scripted Shakespeare: The Animated Tales for television.
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Leon Garfield married Lena Leah Davies in April, 1941, at Golders Green Synagogue but they separated after only a few months.
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Leon Garfield greatly influenced Garfield's writing, giving him suggestions, including the original idea for Smith.
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In 1970 Leon 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, co-authored with Edward Blishen and illustrated by Charles Keeping.
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The more adult-themed books of the mid-1970s met with a mixed reception and Leon Garfield returned to the model of his earlier books with John Diamond, which won a Whitbread Award in 1980, and The December Rose.
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Leon Garfield was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1985.
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Leon Garfield acknowledged the brothers in Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae as inspiration for the book.
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Leon Garfield's father broke off contact with him when he divorced his Jewish wife.
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From 1967 to 1970 Leon Garfield was a Commended runner up for the Carnegie Medal three times, for Smith, Black Jack, and Drummer Boy, the latter in competition with his Medal-winning work.