Leon Garfield
Leon Garfield was a British author born on July 14, 1921, in Brighton, Sussex, England. He had a formative early education that cultivated his love for language, leading him to initially pursue art before his plans shifted due to World War II. Serving in the army medical corps, he gained profound experiences, including involvement in war crimes investigations at Bergen-Belsen, which later influenced his writing. After the war, he began his literary career while working as a hospital laboratory technician, achieving success with his first novel, *Jack Holborn*, in 1964.
Garfield is recognized for his distinctive narratives that often explore male adolescents' journeys toward self-discovery, with a focus on historical authenticity. His notable works include *The Apprentices*, a collection of short stories about eighteenth-century youth, and *The God Beneath the Sea*, which won the Carnegie Medal. His novel *John Diamond* garnered the Whitbread Award in 1980. Throughout his career, Garfield authored over fifty books, earning comparisons to Charles Dickens for his vivid characterization and intricate plots. He passed away on June 2, 1996, leaving behind a legacy that appeals to readers of all ages.
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Leon Garfield
- Born: July 14, 1921
- Birthplace: Brighton, Sussex, England
- Died: June 2, 1996
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
The son of David Kalman Garfield, a businessman, and Rose Blaustein Garfield, a homemaker, Leon Garfield was born on July 14, 1921, in Brighton, Sussex, England. In that town, Garfield graduated from grammar school, where he had an English teacher who instilled in him a love of language. He took art classes at Regent Street Polytechnic in London, but his early desire to become an artist was derailed by the outbreak of World War II and his service in the army medical corps from 1940 to 1946. In his last year of military service, he participated in war crimes investigations, including the examination of buried bodies at the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His wartime experience gave him a sense of life’s uncertainties that informs much of his fiction.
After his return to civilian life, Garfield worked as a hospital laboratory technician while trying his hand at writing. Only with the success of his first book, Jack Holborn (1964), was he able to quit his job at a London hospital in 1966 and, after twenty years of part-time writing, devote himself to being a full-time author. Garfield married artist and fellow writer Vivian Alcock in 1948; the couple met when Garfield was posted in Belgium during the war and Alcock was an ambulance driver. They had one daughter, Jane Angela, adopted in 1964. Garfield died following surgery on June 2, 1996.
Garfield’s most characteristic fictional narratives trace a male adolescent’s journey toward self-discovery, such as the orphaned Jack Holborn’s quest to find his roots by returning to his homeland after falling into the hands of a pirate crew. Garfield took pains to create an authentic recreation of earlier historical periods. Among Garfield’s most popular works were his short fiction collection The Apprentices, which describes teenagers in the eighteenth century learning now-forgotten skills like lamplighting and finding a path to self-realization in their work. Some of his books were made into feature films or serialized for television. His retelling of Greek myths, The God Beneath the Sea, cowritten with Edward Blishen, won the Carnegie Medal for children’s literature in 1970. His novel John Diamond (1980), inspired in part by memories of his father, won the coveted Whitbread Award for the best children’s book of 1980.
The author of more than fifty books, Garfield established an international reputation as a writer whose works appealed to both young and old. Because of his vivid characterization and elaborate plotting, Garfield is sometimes compared to nineteenth century British novelist Charles Dickens. Perhaps that is why Garfield was asked to complete The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1980), a book Dickens had not finished when he died in 1870.