James Leasor
Encyclopedia
James Leasor was a prolific British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. Leasor's 1978 book, Boarding Party, about an incident that took place in the Second World War, was turned into a film, The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves is a 1980 war film starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven. The film is based on the book Boarding Party by James Leasor, which itself is based on a real incident which took place in World War II...

, starring Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

, Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...

 and David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...

.

Biography

Leasor was born in Erith
Erith
Erith is a district of southeast London on the River Thames. Erith's town centre has undergone a series of modernisations since 1961.-Pre-medieval:...

, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, in 1923, and was educated at the City of London School
City of London School
The City of London School is a boys' independent day school on the banks of the River Thames in the City of London, England. It is the brother school of the City of London School for Girls and the co-educational City of London Freemen's School...

. He served in Burma with the Lincolnshire Regiment during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and became a correspondent for the Forces newspaper after being wounded in action. After the war, he went to Oriel College, Oxford, where he read English and edited The Isis magazine
Isis magazine
The Isis Magazine was established at Oxford University in 1892 . Traditionally a rival to the student newspaper Cherwell, it was finally acquired by the latter's publishing house, OSPL, in the late 1990s...

. He joined the Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

 after university and became private secretary to Lord Beaverbrook, the proprietor of the newspaper, and then a foreign correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...

.

He became a full-time author in the 1960s, after the success of his novel, Passport to Oblivion in 1964, one of the best selling books of the 1960s, a thriller featuring Dr Jason Love, which was filmed as Where the Spies Are
Where the Spies Are
Where the Spies Are is a 1965 MGM British comedy adventure film directed by Val Guest and featuring David Niven as Dr Jason Love, Françoise Dorléac, John Le Mesurier, Cyril Cusack and Richard Marner. It was based on the James Leasor book Passport to Oblivion...

in 1965 starring David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...

. He wrote several more thrillers featuring Love, and also wrote historical books, such as The One That Got Away in 1956, filmed starring Hardy Kruger
Hardy Krüger
Hardy Krüger is a German actor. He is thought of as one of the greatest German actors of the 1960s. He was born in Wedding, Berlin, German Reich...

, Singapore: The Battle that Changed the World in 1968, Green Beach in 1975 and Boarding Party in 1978, which was filmed as The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves is a 1980 war film starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven. The film is based on the book Boarding Party by James Leasor, which itself is based on a real incident which took place in World War II...

. 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 Jack Hawkins
Jack Hawkins
Colonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...

, the British actor. Leasor died on 10 September 2007, aged 83.

Jason Love novels

Published in the U.S. as Published in the U.S. as

Non-fiction

Republished in paperback 1980 as The Sea Wolves with a special foreword by Lord Mountbatten of Burma
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

. Republished in paperback as

See also

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