My Account
A hand-carved Zulu warrior points a spear threateningly at Leslie Watkins, 90, as he works in his home office at Arkles Bay. And on a nearby wall a framed government document denounces him as “an undesirable immigrant”. These are souvenirs collected by Les, as friends know him, during his time as a globetrotting Fleet Street journalist.
His varied experiences are reflected in the eleven books he has published, in a dozen languages, including non-fiction, science fiction, novels and an autobiography.
Last year he published Surviving The Press Gang – 70 Crazy Years in Journalism with stories ranging from being Father Christmas at a top London store to being caged and beaten up in Uganda, which was at the time ruled by maniac dictator Idi Amin.
In 2018 he brought out This Mysterious Realm called Sleep, which showed the behaviour of sleepwalkers – some lethal. This book was sparked by a trial Les covered in 1960 when an American airman was found not guilty of murdering his bedmate because he’d been asleep while strangling her.
Les then discovered records about scores more killer sleepwalkers. All were ruled innocent after axing, shooting or bashing their victims. He also found happier sleepwalking stories. Welshman Lee Hadwin, for instance, can neither draw nor paint when awake but creates artistic masterpieces while asleep. His works have earned millions of dollars from customers including US President Donald Trump. Most goes to charity.
Les became a senior editor with Reader’s Digest before moving nearly 40 years ago to New Zealand where he wrote a weekly column with the newly launched Sunday Star-Times.
And at 90 years of age he shows no sign of reducing his output – his latest novel is The Fingering, which he describes as “a Mafia crime novel with surprising twists,” came out last month.
