0:00:02 > 0:00:05Leslie Thomas is one of Britain's most popular novelists.
0:00:05 > 0:00:08Loved by readers, critics and fellow writers alike,
0:00:08 > 0:00:11his life has been as colourful as one of his novels.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Terrific anecdotist at a dinner or lunch table.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18He's more than keeping his end up with his stories,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21some of them wild and weird, some of them probably true.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23You're not quite certain which is which.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27He was the comic chronicler of the late 20th century.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Whilst other writers obsessed about the chattering classes,
0:00:30 > 0:00:31Leslie wrote about what he knew -
0:00:31 > 0:00:35sailors, squaddies and suburban sex lives.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39If you want to know about mid-Victorian England,
0:00:39 > 0:00:40then you read Dickens.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44If you want to know about the latter half of the 20th century in Britain,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47you could do worse than read Leslie's novels.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52I think the personality does come through in his writing, because he's
0:00:52 > 0:00:58a very funny man, and he's also very observant, as all writers should be.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04He's the sort of picker-up of little bits and pieces.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07If we were out somewhere, something happened. If it was funny,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10if it was sad, it would be stored away,
0:01:10 > 0:01:15and would appear in the next book or the book after that.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18His first novel was an instant best-seller.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21By the early 1970s, he was the highest-paid writer in Britain
0:01:21 > 0:01:24and a television celebrity.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28His output has been prolific - a book a year for 40 years -
0:01:28 > 0:01:32and always they are firmly rooted in first-hand experience.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35I can't imagine anyone writing a book
0:01:35 > 0:01:37that wasn't partially autobiographical.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43I like writing non-fiction, but I can't separate it.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10The roots of Leslie Thomas's talent go back to his turbulent childhood
0:02:10 > 0:02:12in the South Wales town of Newport.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Although he left Wales when he was just a child,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17Wales has never left him.
0:02:18 > 0:02:19I feel Welsh.
0:02:21 > 0:02:28I cross that bridge and I begin to talk - these are ears -
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and I find my accent changes in a moment.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35I can only be in Wales three or four hours
0:02:35 > 0:02:38and I'm talking like a South Wales man.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Leslie was born into a seafaring family.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46His father was in the merchant navy, and often away from home.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51Living with a family of sailors, you did tend to tell stories
0:02:51 > 0:02:53and they were always full of stories.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Mind you, they'd never know where they'd been.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00The old man, he had some excuse cos he was a stoker.
0:03:00 > 0:03:01He went onto the ship,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04went down into the stokehold or his quarters down below,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06and he never came up until the ship had come back.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12I remember when I was little asking him, "Where have you been, Dad?"
0:03:12 > 0:03:17and he said, "Oh, in the east," pointing to the west.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23During World War Two, tragedy struck.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26News came that his father had been lost at sea.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29His ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Leslie didn't know at the time
0:03:32 > 0:03:34but his mother was already dying of cancer.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41My mother and father didn't get on very well, which happens when...
0:03:41 > 0:03:44I suppose they were ill-matched.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46They were always wishing each other dead,
0:03:46 > 0:03:49and they died within six months of each other.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Now, that's the... That's the home. My gosh!
0:03:56 > 0:03:59There are the kids at the Barnardo home at Kingsbridge,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01when I first went in.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06There's me, I'm 12. Where's my brother? There he is.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Leslie and his younger brother Roy were sent to live
0:04:09 > 0:04:11in a Barnardo's orphanage in Devon.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13Leslie was just 12 years old.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16He would never live in Wales again.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21It sounds insensitive, but I thought,
0:04:21 > 0:04:23"Well, I've got to get on with this, now."
0:04:23 > 0:04:29But I've quite often felt I should have felt more tearful than that.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33But everything was happening at once.
0:04:33 > 0:04:40I remember saying to one of the staff at the home in Kingsbridge,
0:04:40 > 0:04:46"I treat life as one long joke." I mean, at 12, saying that.
0:04:46 > 0:04:47I must have been crazy.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52It was at the Barnardo's orphanage that Leslie first discovered
0:04:52 > 0:04:54the spellbinding power of words.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01There were 30 in the dormitory, so you had spinning-up time.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03You were allowed to tell stories.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07So I did this one night, and the kids loved it.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09I made it up as I went along.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13There were war stories and all sorts of things.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17At that age, he knew he wanted to be a writer.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21He was a good storyteller then, because if he was being bullied,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24he'd say, "Well, I'm not spinning up tonight."
0:05:24 > 0:05:28So he looked after himself, really, in that way.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32Kids used to come in from other dormitories to listen to the stories.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34I thought, "There's a living in this!"
0:05:36 > 0:05:40During the war, Leslie was evacuated to a Barnardo's home in rural Norfolk.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46That summer was beautiful because we were away from the bombs and everything
0:05:46 > 0:05:49and I learned to swim in a lake
0:05:49 > 0:05:52and we had a boat on the lake.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56It was a real Boy's Own summer.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58I discovered reading there.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03We lived in a house that was abandoned, more or less,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06and there were loads of books left there,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09and I spent these summer days...
0:06:09 > 0:06:10It was idyllic.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12I found a new world.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16Leslie stored up his memories of Barnardo's
0:06:16 > 0:06:20and years later, they all came out when he wrote his first book
0:06:20 > 0:06:25This Time Next Week, subtitled The Autobiography Of A Happy Orphan.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31"It was here that I came to know the things I loved.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34"Afternoons in winter when the light goes early,
0:06:34 > 0:06:39"water in its wild state, and shadows on water,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43"lanes and roads in summer, empty and dusty,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45"voices calling across fields at night.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50"And strong, sweet tea, and warm jerseys,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52"Wild animals who do not see you first,
0:06:52 > 0:06:58"old books and maps and letters, brown and full of secret things.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02"Seagulls, big blackbirds and homecomings."
0:07:04 > 0:07:09He already knew he wanted to be a writer. And now he made a plan.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14I was very ambitious. Very ambitious.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16I worked out a timetable.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19I'd write a short story by the time I was 15,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22I'd write something else by the time I was 20.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Be on a newspaper... And that's how it proved.
0:07:27 > 0:07:28He got his first writing job
0:07:28 > 0:07:31as a junior reporter on a local newspaper.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35It gave him an introduction to a world of remarkable experiences.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40Well, this is where it all started.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42It doesn't look much like a newspaper office now
0:07:42 > 0:07:44but, in fact, it never did...
0:07:45 > 0:07:50'The first morning I worked on that newspaper I went to Walthamstow,
0:07:50 > 0:07:54'and I had an address where somebody had died.'
0:07:54 > 0:07:56And I thought, "Well, I've got to do this,"
0:07:56 > 0:07:57so I went to the house,
0:07:57 > 0:08:03and a little kid in a dirty night dress came to the door and she said,
0:08:03 > 0:08:08"Do you want to see my brother?" So a boy came and he was a bit older.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11She said, "Do you want to see our mum?"
0:08:11 > 0:08:14So I went in and there was this body lying out with these two children,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16in the house alone,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18and the body lying out there.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21You cease to be surprised at anything.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23It was very depressing, I must say.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29At 17 or 16, to be confronted with all that.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34But, anyway, it was an introduction to life and death.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38Eventually Leslie worked his way to Fleet Street,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42where he became a top feature writer on the world's largest
0:08:42 > 0:08:44evening newspaper, the Evening News.
0:08:46 > 0:08:47If you're a journalist,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50something extraordinary happens to you each day.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53And when you stop - you're not a journalist, you become
0:08:53 > 0:08:58a novelist or whatever - if you're not careful, that can go by you.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01You have to go and travel and do things and see people
0:09:01 > 0:09:03and talk to people so that you have that raw material.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10He covered Churchill's funeral, he covered the Eichmann trial,
0:09:10 > 0:09:14and I think that opens your eyes to all sorts of varied
0:09:14 > 0:09:18experiences which almost certainly would never happen to you.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Though you may be of no particular importance yourself,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24you meet a lot of important people, you rub shoulders with them.
0:09:24 > 0:09:25That gives you a font of anecdotes.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38His journalistic career was interrupted by national service.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42At 18, he was called up, like many young men of his generation,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44to serve in the army.
0:09:44 > 0:09:45He was posted to Malaya.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Years later, this experience provided the inspiration
0:09:49 > 0:09:52for his first novel, The Virgin Soldiers.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00It started with this extraordinary story of these incredibly naive,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02almost babyish infantrymen
0:10:02 > 0:10:06on a train from Singapore up to Kuala Lumpur,
0:10:06 > 0:10:12through jungles then infested with Communist guerrillas,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16and the utter helplessness and incompetence of everybody concerned.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18And, of course, one roared with laughter whilst saying,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20"Yes, it really was like that."
0:10:20 > 0:10:22That I believe. That was national service.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27The Virgin Soldiers book had a big core readership of people
0:10:27 > 0:10:30a little bit older than me who had gone through all that
0:10:30 > 0:10:34and had gone through it in strange places like Singapore,
0:10:34 > 0:10:38so it obviously struck a chord.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41We all think of the '60s as the swinging '60s and, indeed, they were
0:10:41 > 0:10:45but it reminded people like me that, you know,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47five or ten years earlier and we'd have been in there.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53The trouble was I wanted to be a soldier, and, you know,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55I ended up in a clerk's job.
0:10:56 > 0:10:57It was a dreary job.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01I could do my work in ten minutes in the morning,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and I played football and cricket and that sort of thing.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06That was the only thing about it.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09Leslie described his experience of national service
0:11:09 > 0:11:11with a journalist's eye for detail.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18"The conscripts, apart from being idle, homesick, afraid,
0:11:18 > 0:11:23"uninterested, hot, sweating, old, oversexed and under-satisfied,
0:11:23 > 0:11:28"were not in the same state of decay as many of the regular soldiers.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31"Fighting soldiers from upcountry arrived at Panglin.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35"Sometimes in transit, sometimes for rest.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37"The garrison soldiers would examine them
0:11:37 > 0:11:41"with curiosity at a distance, as though looking for bullet holes,
0:11:41 > 0:11:47"and grin and say amongst themselves that it took brains to do desk work.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50"Anyone could be a dumb infantryman.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52"There was a dullness about the infantrymen's eyes,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56"a redness about their faces,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00"so that they look like labourers or country boys."
0:12:03 > 0:12:06We thought we might be killed - you know, we were in Malaya.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09We might be killed before we'd had it away.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Not during, but before.
0:12:14 > 0:12:15I remember going to Penang
0:12:15 > 0:12:18to a place called The City Lights - a blessed memory.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23and I met a Chinese girl there and I went off home with her,
0:12:23 > 0:12:24and it was 30 bob.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29She gave me ten bob back in the morning because I was a bit inept.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Leslie lost his virginity and his heart
0:12:34 > 0:12:36to the prostitute he'd met in Singapore.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39He immortalized her in The Virgin Soldiers
0:12:39 > 0:12:41as the character Juicy Lucy.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45When you think he was an 18-year-old boy, and 18 in those days was
0:12:45 > 0:12:50nothing like it is today, to go out to somewhere like Singapore...
0:12:50 > 0:12:52I mean, all you ever did at home was
0:12:52 > 0:12:54if you got a kiss on the doorstep, you were lucky.
0:12:54 > 0:13:00To go out into someone as exotic as Singapore,
0:13:00 > 0:13:05and to meet exotic ladies, I mean, what 18-year-old wouldn't enjoy it?
0:13:05 > 0:13:08There was this lovely Chinese girl and I really didn't know what to do.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10I mean, I fell off the bed twice.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17And I sort of rushed at it, and climbed on...
0:13:19 > 0:13:25But, do you know, honestly, there was one point where I did a wild rush.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30I couldn't find anything!
0:13:30 > 0:13:33So it's true what they say about Chinese women?
0:13:33 > 0:13:34Yes!
0:13:34 > 0:13:36But I did, I did a sort of horrendous...
0:13:37 > 0:13:40To the modern reader, Leslie's depiction of Juicy Lucy
0:13:40 > 0:13:43may seem a little outdated.
0:13:43 > 0:13:44But for better or worse,
0:13:44 > 0:13:48Leslie was simply reflecting the prevailing attitudes of the time.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53'Do you know, she was my first real girlfriend.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57'We used to go swimming, we used to go to the pictures together.'
0:13:57 > 0:13:59The funny thing is, I never knew her name.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04I called her Juicy Lucy in the book but I never knew her name,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08because she changed it every week from Doris, the actor,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11or Rita, the actress at the cinema.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15The Virgin Soldiers was an international best-seller
0:14:15 > 0:14:18and set the template for Leslie's future novels,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22with its blend of keen-eyed observation and lyrical writing,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25which could be bawdy one minute and poignant the next.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27And always a healthy dose of humour
0:14:27 > 0:14:31and the assured hand of a master storyteller.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Incredibly, I did once liken him to Dickens.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37And he said, "Christ," he said, when I met him later.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39"That's going over the top a bit, isn't it?"
0:14:39 > 0:14:42And I said, "Well, I suppose it is."
0:14:42 > 0:14:44"I mean, you know, Dickens and George Eliot,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48"they're in the Premiership, but I put you top of the Championship."
0:14:48 > 0:14:51"Oh, very nice," he said.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Anyway, they both had this great addiction for eccentric characters -
0:14:54 > 0:14:58both got an eye for human eccentricity.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02The funny thing is, I was going to call it The Little Soldiers
0:15:02 > 0:15:05and I met a man who was on the Evening News,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07he was a fiction editor.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12I met him on the train and he said, "Call it The Virgin Soldiers."
0:15:12 > 0:15:14So I did.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18And it was the best three words I'd ever written.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24The Virgin Soldiers quickly gained a reputation as a racy novel and
0:15:24 > 0:15:28it sold half a million copies within the first six months of publication.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30It's a beginner's novel.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35It's got obvious pitfalls to me
0:15:35 > 0:15:39and I wrote much better, indeed, later on.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44I mean, when it was sold in America, I could not believe the money.
0:15:44 > 0:15:50I could not believe... I rang up my agent and said, "Is this right?"
0:15:50 > 0:15:52And he said, "Yeah, we've checked on it!"
0:15:53 > 0:15:57I was amazed that all sorts of people would nod to me in the street
0:15:57 > 0:15:58and one thing and another.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00But it set me up as a novelist
0:16:00 > 0:16:05and I've always been thankful for it, believe me.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Beginner's novel or not,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11the success of The Virgin Soldiers meant that Leslie could give up
0:16:11 > 0:16:15his job as a journalist and become a full-time novelist.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19The lifestyle of a best-selling author suited him perfectly.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21He loved the peace and solitude of writing,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25but also the public profile which came with success.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27He loves the celebrity side of it.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30I mean, they tend to be older people, these days,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32who come up to him and say,
0:16:32 > 0:16:34"You've given me so much pleasure with your books,"
0:16:34 > 0:16:37and he loves that - that's a marvellous thing to hear.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43When I come home to my house, I open my office door and I smile.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49I smile. I think, "This is where I'm me."
0:16:49 > 0:16:52I'd write a thousand words a day,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56and I'd close the door again and go out, and be my normal person again.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02He is a man, I think, a bit like me,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06who doesn't see his writing as the be all and end all of his life.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10And sometimes I'm sure he goes through what I go through.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12You think, "Oh, maybe I should.
0:17:12 > 0:17:19"Maybe I'd be better or, erm, rated more highly," if that matters,
0:17:19 > 0:17:23"if I did make it my be all," and you do come across writers
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and artists who think about nothing else,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28and quite often they're pains in the neck.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33D'you know, the whole thing with writing is just...it grows.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37It's exciting, it grows. It's almost out of your control.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42Some of the books I've written have had really surprising endings.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47It's all amazing that I think, "Where's this going?"
0:17:47 > 0:17:50And it comes out in the end, it's astonishing,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52it's like a mystery prize.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55Can't help feeling with Leslie that he's such a spontaneous writer
0:17:55 > 0:17:59that, although of course he works hard at it, it comes out
0:17:59 > 0:18:04more or less ready composed as opposed to, erm, a deep process
0:18:04 > 0:18:09of cogitation, making a cup of coffee and staring at a blank page.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14I don't think Leslie spends too much time staring at a blank page.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17I don't do angst. I've met several writers who are
0:18:17 > 0:18:24so up themselves, and I'm never like that.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27I just think it's a job.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Not a job, but a God-given job, honestly.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35And people...they say, "You don't talk about your writing."
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Well, I can't think of anything to say about it.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Leslie's unpretentious attitude to his work may be one reason
0:18:44 > 0:18:48why he was consistently overlooked for major literary prizes.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53But he has received several honorary awards, including an OBE in 2004.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01I don't think of Leslie Thomas as a best seller.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06He's a writer. He's a man who is in love with words.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11He's a man who's enraptured by the whole human spectacle
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and wants to enrapture us.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17He's a damn good writer. He's got a lot to say.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19He's a veteran, he's been around,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23he's seen things, been places and he can write about them
0:19:23 > 0:19:27with authority and in damn good English, which also helps.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33The inspiration for Leslie's most controversial novel
0:19:33 > 0:19:35came from close to home.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39Tropic Of Ruislip is set on the suburban housing estate where
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Leslie lived with his first wife Maureen and their children.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49All the houses were the same. Every house had a flat roof.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53It was just at the time when the austerity of the war was finished.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57But my God, we were the new rich.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01We had wall-to-wall carpet and all sorts of things and two cars
0:20:01 > 0:20:05and that sort of thing. So it was the beginning of a modern age.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Tropic Of Ruislip, published in 1974,
0:20:09 > 0:20:14is an unflinching portrayal of the aspirational middle classes.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16It's a moral tale of snobbery, frustration
0:20:16 > 0:20:19and lust amongst the flat roofs.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22It's told with Leslie's trademark good humour.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25But for some, it was a little too close for comfort.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Lots of people live on estates, especially at that time.
0:20:30 > 0:20:36And people recognised themselves. They recognised the characters,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38so that was the success of that story.
0:20:39 > 0:20:45And I went to Ruislip to a meeting at the village hall, and it was packed.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47My publisher came with me and I thought,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50"My God, I'm in the lion's den here."
0:20:50 > 0:20:52And there was one woman who said,
0:20:52 > 0:20:58"This book has blackened Ruislip in the eyes of the world."
0:20:58 > 0:21:00My favourite man in the book, I must admit -
0:21:00 > 0:21:03it's a very funny book as well, it made me laugh a lot -
0:21:03 > 0:21:05is the Phantom Flasher.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07LAUGHTER
0:21:07 > 0:21:12It actually... It really was inspired, if that's the word...
0:21:12 > 0:21:13I was playing golf one morning,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17on a Monday morning at Northwood at 8.30 on an October morning,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21and it was cold and everything, and I was playing with some people,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25and two men came from the woods and produced police cards,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29and said, "We're policemen. Have you seen a naked man running about?"
0:21:29 > 0:21:32And I thought, "A naked man at half past eight
0:21:32 > 0:21:36"on a Monday morning at Northwood!" And it's bizarre, but it does happen.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38You'd think he'd have something better to do.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Well, they never caught me, though.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49"The Flasher stood trembling behind a holly bush as the four ladies
0:21:49 > 0:21:53"approached the green. Four was a good number at one exposure.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56"He judged their ages to be about right, too.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58"Eventually there were four balls on the green.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01"In a moment, the Flasher thought with a quiver,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03"there'd be a couple more.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08"Only one of the quartet observed him walk casually from behind the tree
0:22:08 > 0:22:11"and reveal all his private hangings.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15"With true golf grit and tradition, she did not utter a sound
0:22:15 > 0:22:18"until her opponent's putt was safely made.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23"He bowed politely to the ladies, gave them another quick glimpse
0:22:23 > 0:22:27"and then, in an almost leisurely fashion, trotted away.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31"Behind him, he heard the cry, "Was it a member?" '
0:22:34 > 0:22:39It is true that if you're a comic or a comic writer or a comic actor
0:22:39 > 0:22:42that you do get an instant review.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44People laugh or they don't,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and if they don't laugh that's a bad review.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51But it's a difficult one to pull off in novels, but Leslie clearly has
0:22:51 > 0:22:57cos the vast majority of his work is very funny, but it's
0:22:57 > 0:23:02not just funny, it's not just going for belly laughs on every page.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06Although best known as a humorist,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Leslie has never shied away from difficult subject matter.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12He was researching ideas for a new book
0:23:12 > 0:23:16when he found an unreported story from World War Two.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Allied troops on the south coast of England
0:23:19 > 0:23:21were preparing for the D-Day landings
0:23:21 > 0:23:23when a training exercise went tragically wrong.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Drawing on his experience as a journalist, Leslie dug deeper.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34What he discovered inspired his novel The Magic Army.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37They were practising for D-Day and one night exercise,
0:23:37 > 0:23:38there were some LSTs,
0:23:38 > 0:23:42which were the big landing ships out in Lyme Bay,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47and eight E-Boats, German E-Boats, very fast torpedo craft,
0:23:47 > 0:23:52got out of Cherbourg and torpedoed two of these landing ships.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Now, the Americans on board, they'd never seen a German
0:23:55 > 0:23:58and they thought it was part of the practice.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03And there were 750 men died in half an hour.
0:24:03 > 0:24:04It's such an amazing story,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06I'm surprised it doesn't seem to have been widely heard of.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Well, I... There was a cover-up at the time because the effect
0:24:11 > 0:24:14on morale just before D-Day would have been disastrous.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19The Magic Army was Leslie's most commercially successful book
0:24:19 > 0:24:22after The Virgin Soldiers.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24Against a backdrop of real-life wartime drama,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27he set a tale of romance and comedy
0:24:27 > 0:24:30as British and American forces descended
0:24:30 > 0:24:32on the unsuspecting Devon villagers.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37He mixes humour with pathos, very much like Charlie Chaplin.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40I don't know whether it was me that said it's a Chaplin-esque quality,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43but that most certainly is - one moment you're laughing,
0:24:43 > 0:24:45the next moment you're reaching for the Kleenex
0:24:45 > 0:24:52because something rather terrible or uncomfortable has happened.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54I think it's my best book, you know,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56and it's certainly been most popular.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01I was doing a television programme from Birmingham
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and some chap rang up and said,
0:25:04 > 0:25:09"You're telling lies! You're telling lies, nothing of this sort happened!
0:25:09 > 0:25:13"I was in intelligence at..." wherever it was,
0:25:13 > 0:25:15"..and it didn't happen!"
0:25:15 > 0:25:17I said, "It did happen.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20"800 lives were lost and you didn't even know about it
0:25:20 > 0:25:21"and you were in intelligence.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23"What are you doing in intelligence?"
0:25:25 > 0:25:28In a long and prolific career as a novelist,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33Leslie travelled the world looking for new stories and adventures.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36But he always returned to the South Wales of his childhood memory
0:25:36 > 0:25:38for inspiration.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40Nearly all his novels feature
0:25:40 > 0:25:43at least one Welsh location or character.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47"They got the train from Newport to Barry Island.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52"What a day that had been. What a wonderful last day.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54"He'd never realised the beach was so big,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58"and he'd been going there all the years he could remember.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01"All the rubbish of summer had been taken away by the huge tide
0:26:01 > 0:26:03"and the corporation workmen.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08"The sand was flat and damp, the sea grey and tired.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11"He was going to tell her again how good it would be in Australia,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15"but he stopped himself. He'd already said it.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18"The funfair was all closed up and covered with sheets of tarpaulin
0:26:18 > 0:26:23"and canvas, like an exhibition waiting to be unveiled.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27"The cafes and the hotels across from the beach looked out to the slate sea
0:26:27 > 0:26:30"and the cold ships moving on it
0:26:30 > 0:26:34"speechlessly and with blind shuttered eyes.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37"No-one, it seemed, had anything to say.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39" 'It'll be all right, you know,' he'd said.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43" 'It will, truly, Kate. 'Yes,' she'd answered.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46"It had been a wonderful last day."
0:26:53 > 0:26:56In 2010, Leslie suffered a serious illness
0:26:56 > 0:26:59which stopped him in his tracks.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04These days he lives a quiet life in Salisbury with his wife Diana.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10They were taking me home to die not very long ago,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13and thank God that cleared off.
0:27:13 > 0:27:19But I'm enjoying the leisure of doing nothing.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22He's said to me the other day... I mean, he's 81 now and he said,
0:27:22 > 0:27:24"I feel guilty about not working,"
0:27:24 > 0:27:27and I said, "Well, for heaven's sake, why?
0:27:27 > 0:27:31"Just enjoy the time, you know.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34"Watch cricket on the television all day if you want to or,
0:27:34 > 0:27:40"you know, it's... You've done it now, you can't keep on."
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Have you got any more novels in you?
0:27:42 > 0:27:48No. No, I did about 20 pages of something,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51er, well, it was called A Boy's War,
0:27:51 > 0:27:57and I realised it's too much for me now.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59I live a very pleasant life.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04I get up at 10.30 in the morning, I read the papers, I have lunch,
0:28:04 > 0:28:06I have a sleep in the afternoon,
0:28:06 > 0:28:11I watch television or sport at night and that sort of thing.
0:28:11 > 0:28:12It's a good way to go out.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18I've had a very happy life outside writing.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24It doesn't consume me, it was just a part of me.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28I look at the books on the shelf now
0:28:28 > 0:28:32and I think, "Where did that come from?"
0:28:32 > 0:28:37But d'you know, God gives you this gift and thank God it happens.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41Thank God it happens, that's the one thing I want to say.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd