George Leonardos

George Leonardos (in Greek Γιώργος Λεονάρδος) is a Greek author of historical novels. Son of Anastase and Maria, he was born in Alexandria Egypt on 20 February 1937. His father died when he was two years old. 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 two Greek daily newspapers of the city. In 1954 he moved to Greece to study Physics at the University of Thessaloniki. After his graduation, he studied journalism and began to work as a journalist.

He worked as a reporter for major 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 managing editor of the local Greek newspaper Ethnicos Kirikas (National Herald). He has also worked as a newscaster in the public and private television channels in Greece, ERT and ANTENA accordingly, and has reported on the Vietnam War, the Iran- Iraq War and the Persian Gulf War as well as International Conferences. He is a member of the Editor’s Association of Daily Press in Greece and the National Society of Greek Writers. His first novel, Grandma’s Red Sofa, was published in 1992.

He was twice awarded by the Greek Society of Christian Studies with the prize of the best historical novel for his novels “Mara, the Christian Sultana” and “The Sleeping Beauty of Mystra”. He was also awarded by Botsis Publication Foundation with the honorary prize for his career in journalism and literature.

In 2009 he was awarded with the highest State Award for his historical novel “The Last Palaeologue”, which was referring to the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans, in 1453.

He has also written the novels: “Grandma’s Red Sofa”, 1992, “The House above the Catacombs”, 1993, “Eva”, 1994, “The Magnet’s Poles” 1995, “Earth's Lovers”, 1996, “A Song from the Soul”, 1997.

His historical novels are: “Barbarossa the Pirate”, 1998, which was also published in England, Italy and Spain, “Mara, the Christian Sultana”, 1999, “Mary Magdalena” 2001, “Sleeping Beauty of Mystra” 2003, the trilogy “Michael VIII Palaeologue” 2004, “The Palaeologues”, 2006, and “The Last Palaeologue”, 2007, which later was expanded with the historical novel “Sophia Palaeologina - From Byzantium to Russia”, two books about the Seafarers “Maggelan” and “Thule” and finally “The Alexandria Rhapsody”.

In 1980 he published the “English-Greek Dictionary of Scientific and Military Terms”, and in 2000 he published the study “The Structure of the Novel”.