James Leasor
| James Leasor | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
20 December 1923 Erith, Kent, England |
| Died | 10 September 2007 (aged 83) Wiltshire, England |
| Pen name | James Leasor; Andrew MacAllan |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 1946-1997 |
| Genre | Fiction, History |
| Website | |
| www |
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James Leasor (20 December 1923 – 10 September 2007) was a prolific British author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. Leasor's 1978 book, Boarding Party, about an incident from the Second World War that until that time was secret, was turned into a film, The Sea Wolves, starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven.
Leasor was born in Erith, Kent, in 1923, and was educated at the City of London School. He was commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment and served in Burma with the Lincolnshire Regiment during World War II. In the Far East his troopship was torpedoed and he spent 18 hours adrift in the Indian Ocean. He also 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 later became a correspondent for the SEAC, the Services Newspaper of South East Asia Command, under the inspirational editorship of Frank Owen, after being wounded in action. His novel, NTR: Nothing to Report, is a semi-autobiographical account of many 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 became private secretary to Lord Beaverbrook, the proprietor of the newspaper, and then a foreign correspondent.
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