Dick Leonard

Leonard was educated at the Institute of Education at London University and the University of Essex, where he graduated with a MA degree. He was Deputy General Secretary of the Fabian Society from 1955 to 1960, where he founded the Young Fabians in 1960, he also became a freelance journalist and broadcaster. From 1968 to 1970 he was a senior research fellow (Social Science Research Council) at Essex.

He served as Member of Parliament for Romford from 1970 until the February 1974 general election, when there were major changes made to the constituency boundary. During his time in the House he was PPS to Anthony Crosland.

From 1974 to 1985 he was Assistant Editor of The Economist. He served as Europe Correspondent in Brussels for The Observer (London) from 1989 to 1997. He remained in Brussels until 2009 and wrote on Belgian politics in The Bulletin, and on European affairs in The Guardian (London), the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, European Voice, and other newspapers in several countries.

Leonard has been a Visiting Professor at the Free University of Brussels and a Senior Adviser at the Centre for European Policy Studies.

Leonard is married to Irène Heidelberger-Leonard, a scholar of postwar German literature, and is the father of Mark Leonard, an expert on foreign policy, and Miriam Leonard, a classical scholar. He lives in London.

• Leonard, Dick; Herman, Valentine, eds. (1972). The backbencher and Parliament : a reader. London: Macmillan.
• Paying for party politics: The case for public subsidies, PEP Broadsheet No 555, 1975.
• (ed. with David Lipsey) The Socialist agenda: Crosland's legacy, Cape, London, 1981. ISBN 0-224-01886-8
• (with Richard Natkiel) World atlas of elections: Voting patterns in 39 democracies, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1986. ISBN 0-340-40595-3
• Elections in Britain today: A guide for voters and students, Macmillan, 1996. ISBN 0-333-66043-9
• The Economist Guide to the European Community, 1992; 4th edn as The Economist Guide to the European Union, 1997; 9th edn 2005; 10th edn as Guide to the European Union: The definitive guide to all aspects of the EU, The Economist in association with Profile Books, London, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84668-172-1
• (ed.) Crosland and New Labour, Macmillan in association with the Fabian Society, 1999. ISBN 0-333-73990-6
• (with Roger Mortimore) Elections in Britain: A voter's guide, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2001. ISBN 0-333-91801-0
• (ed. with Mark Leonard) The pro-European reader, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2001. ISBN 0-333-97721-1
• A Century of Premiers: Salisbury to Blair, Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 1-4039-3990-X
• (ed.) The future of socialism by Anthony Crosland, 50th anniv. edn, Constable, London, 2006. ISBN 1-84529-485-8
• Nineteenth-century premiers: Pitt to Rosebery, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 0-230-20985-8
• Eighteenth-Century British Premiers: Walpole to the Younger Pitt, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4039-3908-1
• The Great Rivalry: Gladstone and Disraeli, A Dual Biography, I. B. Tauris, London, 2013. ISBN 978-1-84885-925-8. Publisher's page.]
• A History of British Prime Ministers: Walpole to Cameron (omnibus edition), Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. ISBN 978-1-137-33804-4.
• (with Mark Garnett) Titans: Fox vs. Pitt, Bloomsbury, 2019. ISBN 978-1-78453-369-4. Publisher's page.]

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Times Guide to the House of Commons February 1970.
• "Leonard, Richard Lawrence, (Dick Leonard)", Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Richard Leonard