Leslie, Desmond
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1921-2001) UK composer and author, son of the writer Shane Leslie (1885-1971) and best known for co-authoring with George Adamski (whom see for details and related works by Adamski alone) the famous early UFO book Flying Saucers Have Landed (1954; exp by Leslie 1970). Of more direct sf interest is Angels Weep (1948), a right-wing Dystopia, and The Amazing Mr Lutterworth (1958), in which Aliens avert the destruction of the planet through a device which provides unlimited energy: a Time of Splendour ensues. Leslie also wrote the story on which the screenplay of Stranger from Venus (1954; vt Immediate Disaster; vt The Venusian US) was based. How Britain Won the Space Race (graph 1982 chap) with Patrick Moore is a spoof "nonfiction" account of a nineteenth-century UK Space Flight programme which does not quite amount to an intended Alternate History; it is copiously and jokily illustrated with recaptioned Victorian and earlier engravings, with (for example) cannon described as Rocket engines on a test bed and a meteor/fireball sighting over a city as a failed launch attempt. [JC/DRL]
Desmond Peter Arthur Leslie
born County Monaghan, Ireland: 29 June 1921
died Antibes, France: 21 February 2001
works (selected)
- Angels Weep (London: T Werne Laurie, 1948) [hb/]
- The Amazing Mr Lutterworth (London: Allan Wingate, 1958) [hb/]
nonfiction
- Flying Saucers Have Landed (London: Thomas Werner Laurie, 1953) with George Adamski [nonfiction: hb/]
- Flying Saucers Have Landed (London: Neville Spearman, 1970) with George Adamski [nonfiction: exp of the above by Leslie alone: hb/]
- How Britain Won the Space Race (London: Mitchell Beazley, 1972) with Patrick Moore [nonfiction: chap: graph: illus/hb/Alan Cracknell]
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