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Pseudonym of Henry Cecil Leon (1902-1976), UK barrister and later County Court judge who wrote numerous witty, legally knowledgable stories, generally revolving around courtrooms, ingenious crimes, eccentric lawyers and unreliable witnesses. The most famous is Brothers in Law (1955), which was filmed in 1957. His first work of genre interest seems to be the brief and flippant ghost story, "Proof" (April 1964 Argosy UK), collected in Portrait of a Judge (coll 1964). Two late Cecil novels include overt sf elements. A psychoactive Drug carried by pollen in The Buttercup Spell (1971) temporarily transforms England into a woozy Utopia where judges impose only the lightest punishments and police reward speeding motorists with hugs. In Cross Purposes (1976), a family's large football pools win proves to be fraudulent: their Scientist son, creator of various Inventions, has altered the pools form via remote-control Rays after the match results were known. A moral and legal dilemma ensues. [DRL]
born Norwood Green, London: 19 September 1902
died Brighton, Sussex: 23 May 1976
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Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 13:46 pm on 20 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/cecil_henry>