Michael Legat (24 March 1923 – 15 August 2011) was a British writer of writers' guides and

romance novel A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed ...

s. He was Chairman of Swanwick writers' summer school and an associate vice-president of the

Romantic Novelists' Association The Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) is the professional body representing authors of romantic fiction in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1960 by Denise Robins (first president), Barbara Cartland (first vice-president), Vivian Stua ...

. Legat was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. He worked as Editorial Director of Corgi Books and later of Cassell during 35 years, in 1978 he decided to turn to writing full-time. He died in

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, aged 88.

Bibliography

Harcourt Saga

#''The Silk Maker'' (1985) #''The Cast Iron Man'' (1987)

Novels

*''Mario's Vineyard'' (1980) *''The Silver Fountain'' (1982) *''The Shapiro Diamond'' (1984) *''We Beheld His Glory'' (1988) *''The Retiring Highwayman'' (1998) *''Two's a Crowd'' (2001) *''The Prison Within'' (2001) *''The Pure in Heart'' (2001)

Non Fiction

*''Dear Author: Letters from a Working Publisher to Authors, Prospective and Practiced'' (1972) *''An Author's Guide to Publishing'' (1982) *''Putting on a Play'' (1984) *''Writing for Pleasure and Profit'' (1986) *''The Illustrated Dictionary of Western Literature'' (1987) *''The Nuts and Bolts of Writing'' (1989) *''How to Write Historical Novels'' (1990) *''Plotting the Novel'' (1992) *''Understanding Publishers' Contracts'' (1992) *''Non-fiction Books: A Writer's Guide'' (1993) *''The Writer's Rights'' (1995) *''An Author's Guide to Literary Agents'' (1995) *''Revision: An Author's Guide'' (1998) *''Michael Legat Writer's Guides'' (1999) *''Writing Your Life Story'' (1999) *''Rehearsal'' (1999) *''They Read Books and Go to Cocktail Parties'' (2000) *''Writing for a Living'' (2000) *''The Ultimate Simple Writer's Guide'' (2004)

References

English book publishers (people) English romantic fiction writers 1923 births 2011 deaths 20th-century English novelists People educated at Whitgift School 20th-century English businesspeople {{England-novelist-stub