Leon Garfield
Personal Information
Description
Leon Garfield was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. Garfield's novels for children all have historical settings, mainly in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The novels were greatly influenced by both Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. Garfield wrote his first book, the pirate novel Jack Holborn, for adult readers, but an editor saw its potential as a children's novel and persuaded Garfield to adapt it for younger readers. His second book, Devil-in-the-Fog, was the first of several historical adventure novels, typically set late in the eighteenth century and featuring a character of humble origins pushed into the midst of a threatening intrigue. Besides adventure stories for various ages, some of Garfield’s books were retellings of famous stories, such as Greek myths and the works of Shakespeare (later animated for television). In 1980 he also wrote an ending for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a book Dickens left unfinished at his death in 1870. Garfield's first marriage was short lived. Having met during WWII, Garfield's second marriage was to Vivien Alcock, a well-known children's author. In 1964 they adopted a baby girl whom they called Jane after Jane Austen, one of their favorite writers. Garfield 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. -- adapted from Wikipedia
Books
The Writing on the Wall
Scary!
Anthology: Give yourself the shivers with these fourteen stories by the master scaremongers. 1. The Spell - R. L. Stine 2. It’s a Good Life - Jerome Bixby 3. Drink My Red Blood - Richard Matheson 4. Something Nasty - William F. Nolan 5. The Restless Ghost - Leon Garfield 6. The Thirteenth Day of Christmas - Isaac Asimov 7. Hush! - Zenna Henderson 8. Spotty Powder - Roald Dahl 9. A Baby Tramp - Ambrose Bierce 10. The Man Upstairs - Ray Bradbury 11. Dead Language Master - Joan Aiken 12. Here There Be Tygers - Stephen King 13. The Trick [“Trick or Treat”] - Ramsey Campbell 14. A Toy for Juliette - Robert Bloch
The Saracen maid
After being captured by pirates and sold as a slave, a forgetful young Englishman faces a long imprisonment because he can't remember where the ransom note should be sent.
The Wedding Ghost
The story of Jack, a young man who embarks on an unexpected journey to find his bride. This strangely moving story of a ghostly wedding has become a classic of its time.
The king in the garden
A little girl named Abigail finds mad King Nebuchadnezzar eating the flowers in her garden and helps him return to his palace and to God.
King Nimrod's tower
Against a background of the building of the Tower of Babel, a boy tries to train a stray dog--and God watches over all.
John Diamond
Unsettling words from his dying father set twelve-year-old William Jones on a desperate search through darkest London for John Diamond, the son of a man his father apparently once cheated badly. In the course of his search, he encounters an odd assortment of characters, some of whom seem determined to kill him. Originally published in the United States as Footsteps, John Diamond combines a cast of remarkable eccentrics with superb sensory descriptions. This title was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book.
The Fool (Apprentices #7)
Set during the celebration of Passover, the story revolves around Bunting, apprentice to his clockmaker uncle, Mr. Israels.
Shakespeare
House of Hanover
Examines the lasting cultural contributions of the age of the Hanover Kings, focusing on the work and personalities of the Kings and queens, writers, musicians, architects, and scientists of the eighteenth century.
The Sound of Coaches
One stormy December night some time in the eighteenth century, a coach came thundering down the long hill outside of Dorking on its usual journey into London. But something unusual was to happen that night as one of the passengers unexpectedly gave birth to a child. Not until he was eight did Sam Chichester discover that the coachman and guard he called 'Ma and 'Pa' were not his real parents. Sam will need to grow up, leave home, and find love before he will finally uncover the truth about his parentage.
The golden shadow
Retells in a continuous narrative the activities and adventures of the Greek gods and goddesses and their relationships with each other and with human beings.
Child o'war
An account of an early nineteenth-century British naval officer's experiences as a boy sailor serving under Nelson.
The god beneath the sea
An account, based on Greek myths, of the beginning of the world and the forces that rule the universe and the destiny of man.
The boy and the monkey
An eleven-year-old orphan in eighteenth-century London seems certain to be hanged for training his monkey to steal for him.
Mister Corbett's ghost
The apprentice wished for nothing more than the death of his hated master but he finds the burden of the man's ghost too great to bear.
Moss and Blister (Apprentices #3)
The story of Blister, the skinny foundling girl apprenticed to a midwife, who hurries to a birth in a London stable on Christmas eve.