Robert Arthur Leeson (31 March 1928,

Northwich Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, east of Chester, south of Warrington and south of Ma ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

– 29 September 2013) was an English author, mainly known for his children's books. Before becoming a writer, he worked as Literary Editor of the left-wing British newspaper the '' Morning Star''. Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard, ''The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1998, , p. 308. Leeson was a prolific writer, having had more than 70 books for young people published between 1973 and 2003. His books include several

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to oth ...

s, such as ''Beyond the Dragon Prow'', about a crippled Viking boy.Emer O'Sullivan, ''Historical Dictionary of Children's Literature''. Scarecrow Press, 2010, , p. 156. Leeson produced a trilogy about a British family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: ''Maroon Boy'' (1974), ''Bess'', and ''The White Horse'' (1977). ''The White Horse'' revolves around a young man who fights on the

Roundhead Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who ...

side during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

.Richard Phillips. “Politics of Reading: Decolonizing Children's Geographies.” ''Ecumene'', vol. 8, no. 2, 2001, pp. 125–150. Leeson also wrote ''The Third Class Genie'' (1975) (a humorous

fantasy novel Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. magic (paranormal), Magic, the supernatural and Legendary creature, magical creatures are common i ...

), and the

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

''Time Rope'' (1986) and ''Zania Experiment'' (1993) series. Leeson wrote

social realist Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

novels such as ''It's My Life'' (1980), about a teenage girl who has to look after her family after her mother walks out on them. ''Silver's Revenge'' is a humorous sequel to ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

'', and ''Candy for the King'' is a fairytale about a

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...

influenced by

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

's ''

Candide ( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The ...

''. Leeson's ''Reading and Righting: the past, present and future of Fiction for the young'' (1985) is a history of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. He also wrote for radio, television and the theatre.

Bibliography

* ''United We Stand'' (1971) * ''Strike'' (1973) * ''Beyond the Dragon Prow'' (1973) * ''Maroon Boy'' (1974) * ''The Third Class Genie'' (1975) * ''The Demon Bike Rider'' (1976) * ''Children's Books and Class Society'' (1977) * ''The White Horse'' (1977) * ''The Cimaroons'' (1978) * ''Challenge in the Dark'' (1978) * ''Silver's Revenge'' (1978) * ''Travelling Brothers'' (1979) * ''It's My Life'' (1980) * ''Harold and Bella, Jammy and Me'' (1980) * ''Bess'' (1983) * ''Candy for King'' (1983) * ''The People's Dream'' (1983) * ''Mum and Dad's Big Business'' (1983) * ''Genie on the Loose'' (1984) * ''The Adventures of Baxter and Co.'' (1984) * ''Reading and Righting: The Past, Present and Future of Fiction for the young'' (1985) * ''Time Rope'' (1986) * ''Wheel of Danger'' (1986) * ''At War With Tomorrow'' (1986) * ''Three Against the World'' (1986) * ''The Metro Gangs Attack'' (1986) * ''The Reversible Giant'' (1986) * ''Slambash Wangs of a Compo Gormer'' (1987) * ''Never Kiss Frogs'' (1988) * ''Burper'' (1989) * ''How Alice Saved Captain Miracle'' (1989) * ''Hey Robin'' (1989) * ''Right Royal Kidnap'' (1990) * ''Jan Alone'' (1990) * ''Fire on the Cloud'' (1991) * ''Coming Home'' (1991) * ''One Frog Too Many'' (1991) * ''Pancake Pickle'' (1991) * ''Landing in Cloud Valley'' (1991) * ''April Fool at Hob Lane School'' (1991) * ''Never Kiss Frogs'' (1992) * ''No Sleep for Hob Lane'' (1993) * ''Karlo's Tale'' (1993) * ''Hide And Seek'' (1993) * ''The Last Genie'' (1993) * ''Ghosts at Hob Lane'' (1993) * ''Smart Girls'' (1993) * ''Deadline'' (1993) * ''Danger Trail'' (1993) * ''Blast Off!'' (1993) * ''The Dog Who Changed the World'' (1994) * ''The Story of Robin Hood'' (1994) * ''Swapper'' (1994) * ''All the Gold in the World'' (1995) * ''Red, White and Blue'' (1995) * ''The Amazing Adventures of Idle Jack'' (1995) * ''Smart Girls Forever'' (1996) * ''Lucky Lad!'' (1997) * ''Doomwater'' (1997) * ''Geraldine Gets Lucky'' (1997) * ''Tom's Private War'' (1998) * ''Trwco'' (1998) * ''Why's the Cow on the Roof?'' (1999) * ''Liar'' (1999) * ''The Song of

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

'' (2000) * ''Ruth'' (2000) * ''My sister Shahrazad: Tales from the

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

'' (2001) * ''Tom's War Patrol'' (2001) * ''Tom's War'' (2003) (Omnibus of ''Tom's Private War'' and ''Tom's War Patrol''). * ''Partners in Crime'' (2003) * ''Onda, Wind-Rider'' (2003)

TV tie-ins

* ''

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...

Rules OK?'' (1980). * ''Grange Hill Goes Wild'' (1980). * ''Grange Hill for Sale'' (1981). Novel * ''Grange Hill Home and Away'' (1982). * ''Forty Days of Tucker J.'', 1983.

References

External links

Profile
at Walker Books {{DEFAULTSORT:Leeson, Robert 1928 births 2013 deaths English children's writers English historical novelists English fantasy writers English science fiction writers English male short story writers English short story writers English male novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English short story writers 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period