Leonard Daventry

Leonard Daventry (1915–1987) was a British science fiction writer born in Brixton, London. He is best remembered for A Man of Double Deed (1965), his debut novel introducing Claus Coman, a telepathic operative solving crimes in a post-nuclear-war society governed by mentally gifted "Psi" agents, which launched the loosely connected Keyman series continuing through Reflections in a Mirage, The Ticking Is in Your Head, and Twenty-One Billionth Paradox. His later novel Terminus (1971) presented a bleaker, standalone dystopian vision and is considered among his strongest work. Daventry published most of his fiction through the British genre imprint Robert Hale Limited, writing speculative narratives centered on psychological extremity, telepathy, and societies rebuilding after catastrophe. He died in London in 1987.