Michael Leapman, a Fleet Street journalist whose 60-year career included "war reporting, editing the diary column of the Times and writing about his Brixton allotment," has died, the Guardian reported. He was 85. His 18 books include biographies of Rupert Murdoch (Barefaced Cheek) and former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock (Kinnock).
Leapman was born in Hendon, north London. "After national service in the navy (which ended with three days in military prison and a dishonorable discharge, after he refused an instruction to fetch a broom), he went into journalism with stints on English-language newspapers in Cyprus and Iran. He did not endear himself to the authorities in either country. He returned to the U.K. to work at the Scotsman, then the Sun as a diplomatic reporter," the Guardian noted.
From 1969 to 1981, Leapman was with the Times. While working as Times Diary editor, he was also the New York correspondent, writing a weekly "Leapman in America" column. In the 1980s, he worked at the Daily Express and the Independent, then for more than 30 years he was a freelance and nonfiction author.
In addition to his biographies, Leapman wrote books about the BBC and the press; gardening history; and the Kindertransport evacuations on the even of World War II; as well as guidebooks to London and New York. His works include The World for a Shilling; Witnesses to War: Eight True-life Stories of Nazi Persecution; The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild: The Forgotten Father of the Flower Garden; and Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance.
In the Guardian's obituary, Ben Leapman observed that his father also "had a passion for theatre, horseracing and cricket, and was a lifelong Labour party member."