George Leonardos

George Leonardos
File:Gleonardos.jpg
Occupation	novelist, critic, journalist

George Leonardos (Greek: Γιώργος Λεονάρδος) is a Greek author of historical novels.

Early life

Son of Anastase and Maria, Leonardos was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 20 February 1937. His father died when he was two years old and he lived with his mother in Alexandria until 1954. He was an avid reader of fiction and history, and as a high school student in Alexandria had his short stories published in Tahidromos and Anatoli, the Greek daily newspapers of the city. In 1954 he moved to Greece to study Physics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Career

After his graduation, he studied journalism and began to work as a journalist. He worked as a reporter for Athens newspapers Apogevmatini, Eleftherotypia, Mesimvrini, Eleftheros Typos, Ethnos and as a columnist in the financial paper Kerdos. He was the first correspondent of the Athens News Agency in Belgrade in 1964, and later in New York in 1976, where he was also appointed director of the local Greek newspaper Ethnicos Kirikas. He has also worked as a newscaster in Greek Radio and Television, and has reported on the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf war.

Leonardos is a member of the National Society of Greek Writers. His first novel, Grandma’s Red Sofa, was published in 1992. He was twice awarded the prize for best historical novel by the Greek Society of Christian Studies for his novels Mara, the Christian Sultana and Sleeping Beauty of Mystra. He was awarded a Botsis Foundation prize for his services to journalism and literature.

In 1980 he published the English-Greek Dictionary of Scientific and Military Terms, and in 2000 he published The Structure of the Novel. His latest historical novel is Sophia Paleologue Palaelogina - From Byzantium to Russia.

Works

Novels

• "Grandmam's red sofa", 1992[1]
• "The house over the catacombs", 1993[2]
• "Eva", 1994[3]
• "The magnet poles" 1995[4]
• "Earth's lovers", 1996[5]
• "A song from the soul" 1997[6]

Historical Novels

• "Barbarossa the Pirate", 1998[7]
• "Mara, the Christian Sultana", 1999[8]
• "Maria Magdalene", 2001[9]
• "Sleeping Beauty of Mystra", 2002[10]
• "Michael VIII Palaeologue", 2004[11]
• "The Palaeologues", 2006
• "The last Palaeologue", 2007.
• "Sophia Paleologue - From Byzantium to Russia", 2008

References

• Who's Who (1979) p.363
• Who's Who Metron (1995) p.452
• European Who's Who (2002-2003) p.1047

Citations

• National Book Center of Greece[12]

• The Publishing House “Perizitito” for the George Leonardos’ books[13]

• It’s all Greek 2 me bookstore[14]

• The Hellenic Society Prometheas on George Leonardos[15]