WIBBERLEY, Leonard (Patrick O'Connor)

(1915-1983)

   Irish writer who lived in the USA from 1943, and who published at least 103 books, beginning in 1947; much of this work was for children, and a modest proportion of it was sf or fantasy. His first and most famous sf novel, the ostensibly adult tale which begins the Grand Fenwick sequence, is The Mouse that Roared (1955; vt The Wrath of Grapes1955 UK), a RURITANIAN spoof involving a super- WEAPON; it was filmed in 1959. The subsequent vols - Beware of the Mouse (1958), which is a prequel, The Mouse on Wall Street (1969) and The Mouse that Saved the West (1981) - make little use of sf devices except in the most cursory fashion,except for The Mouse on the Moon (1962), which involves spaceflight, and which was filmed in 1963. A singleton, One in Four (1976), depicts a USA threatened by immaterial entities from the FAR FUTURE. Encounter Near Venus (1967) and its sequel, Journey to Untor (1970), are CHILDREN'S SF.Of fantasy interest were several further juveniles, including Mrs Searwood's Secret Weapon (1954), McGillicuddy McGotham (1956), Take Me to Your President (1957), The Quest of Excalibur (1959), Stranger of Killknock (1961) and The Crime of Martin Coverly (1981). LW was an intermittently clever writer whose books were eaten by sweetness.

   JC