Leon Rosselson

Leon Rosselson (born 22 June 1934, Harrow, Middlesex, England) is an English songwriter and writer of children's books. After his early involvement in the folk music revival in Britain, he came to prominence, singing his own satirical songs, in the BBC's topical TV programme of the early 1960s, ''That Was The Week That Was''. He toured Britain and abroad, singing mainly his own songs and accompanying himself with acoustic guitar.

In later years, he has published 17 children's books, the first of which, ''Rosa's Singing Grandfather'', was shortlisted in 1991 for the Carnegie Medal.

He continues to write and perform his own songs, and to collaborate with other musicians and performers. Most of his material includes some sort of satirical content or elements of radical politics.

Folk years

Leon Rosselson was born and brought up in North London, lived in Tufnell Park and attended school in Highgate Road, adjacent to Parliament Hill Fields. His Jewish parents came to England as refugees from the Russian Empire.

He joined the London Youth Choir, formed by John Hasted and Eric Winter, which went to a number of World Youth Festivals in the 1950s.

At the end of that decade, two Scotsmen, Robin Hall (1936–1998) and Jimmie Macgregor (born 1930), came to London and teamed up with Shirley Bland (Jimmie's wife) and Leon Rosselson to form a quartet called The Galliards. Rosselson played five string banjo and guitar and did most of the arrangements. Their repertoire consisted of folk songs. They made an EP and two LPs for Decca (''Scottish Choice'' and ''A-Roving'') and one LP for the American label, Monitor. They also made a single for Topic of the Dave Arkin/Earl Robinson song "The Ink Is Black". The group broke up in 1963.

In 1964, Rosselson joined Marian Mackenzie, Ralph Trainer and Martin Carthy (later replaced by Roy Bailey) in a group called The Three City Four. They concentrated on contemporary songs, including some of Rosselson's own, and made two LPs for Decca and for CBS.

That Was The Week That Was

Britain's satire boom began on 24 November 1962 with the debut of a late-night Saturday television series called ''That Was The Week That Was'', hosted by David Frost. It featured some of Rosselson's early satirical songs. The programme ran until 1963.

Folk club singer

His song "Tim McGuire" (who loved to play with fire), written during this period, was the subject of a complaint from the Chairman of Staffordshire Fire Brigades when it was played a number of times on BBC
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