Leon Garfield author page

Leon Garfield biography

Leon Garfield was a British author known for his historical fiction for children and young adults. He was born in Brighton and educated at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School. Garfield worked as a laboratory technician before serving in the Army Medical Corps during the Second World War. After the war, he trained as an art teacher and later worked in education.

Garfield’s writing career began in the early 1960s. His first published novel was Jack Holborn in 1964. He became recognised for his vivid storytelling and detailed historical settings, often set in eighteenth-century England. Garfield wrote numerous novels, short stories, and adaptations, including Smith (1967), which won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and The God Beneath the Sea (1970), co-written with Edward Blishen, which won the Carnegie Medal.

In addition to his novels, Garfield adapted several classic works for younger readers, including retellings of Shakespeare’s plays. He also wrote scripts for television adaptations of his own books and other literary works.

Leon Garfield’s novel Smith was awarded the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 1967.