What is Leon Garfield best known for?

Leon Garfield (14 July 1921 – 2 June 1996) was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. He wrote more than thirty books and scripted Shakespeare: 'The Animated Tales' for television.

Garfield's novels for children all have a historical setting. In the early novels this is mostly the late eighteenth century, from 'John Diamond' on, it is the nineteenth century.

But they are not novels about historical events, which are rarely depicted, or social conditions, which provide only the starting point for the personal stories of the characters. In the few novels where Garfield handles actual events, he writes from the limited and subjective viewpoint of his characters.