James Leasor

James Leasor was a prolific British author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. Leasor's 1978 book, Boarding Party, about an incident from the Second World War that until that time was secret, was turned into a film, The Sea Wolves, starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven. Leasor was born in Erith, Kent, in 1923, and was educated at the City of London School. He was commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment and served in Burma with the Lincolnshire Regiment during World War II. In the Far East his troopship was torpedoed and he spent 18 hours adrift in the Indian Ocean.... He also wrote his first book, Not Such a Bad Day, by hand in the jungles of Burma on airgraphs, single sheets of light-sensitive paper which could be reduced to the size of microdots and flown to England in their thousands to be blown up to full size again. His mother then typed it up and sent it off to an agent, who found a publisher who sold 28,000 copies, although Leasor received just £50 for all its rights.
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