A prodigious British author, James Leasor was educated at The City of London School and at Oriel College, Oxford (where he read English). During World War II he served with the Royal Berkshire Regiment and was posted to Burma and India with the 1st Lincolns. Following the war, Leasor established a journalistic career working as a feature writer and foreign correspondent at London's Daily Express (1948-1955).
Leasor's firsthand experience of India inspired an ongoing interest in the country and its history which was later reflected as a focus of his non-fiction works such as The Boarding Party (1995). The author of numerous historical studies, Leasor has been 'applauded by critics' for his ability to skilfully recount 'piecemeal' war time incidents within a formal narrative structure. One such work was written while Leasor was with the Daily Express; co-authored with Kendal Burt and published in 1956, The One That Got Away tells the story of the sole World War II German POW to escape from Allied hands.
Writing fiction as well as non-fiction, Leasor has published numerous suspense/adventure novels, including the Dr Jason Love secret agent series which has been published in nineteen countries. The first book in this series, Passport to Oblivion (1964), was filmed in 1965 as Where the Spies Are with David Niven in the lead role. Leasor has also written six novels which have been published under the pseudonym of Andrew MacAllan. The author created the pseudonym in response to the assertion of several 'would-be writers' who 'claimed that it was impossible for a newcomer to break into publishing'. Using the alternative writing name, Leasor submitted the epic novel Succession (1989) to Headline; the manuscript was accepted for publication and was successfully followed by its sequel, Generation (1990). Further works published under the 'MacAllan' name include the titles: Diamond Hard (1991), Fanfare (1992), Speculator (1993) and Traders (1994).
Drawn by a desire to include Australian settings in his novels, Leasor visited Australia in 1989. During a period of several weeks, he travelled extensively across the continent and subsequently spent time in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. The author notes that it 'would have been impossible to use Australian backgrounds' in his novels 'without actually travelling to the places concerned'. Leasor has published three novels which contain Australian settings/characters: Succession (1989), Generation (1990) and the ninth Jason Love book, Love Down Under (1992).
