Born to Alf and Ada (née Schneiderman) Leslie, a Jewish family in Tottenham, London, England, he spent his formative years at boarding school in Brighton.
He subsequently read Chinese at SOAS University of London, earning a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree.
Having then moved to Paris in France, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (très honorable) was awarded at the College of Sorbonne (1962) under the supervision of Jacques Gernet.
From 1970 to 1972, he worked as associate professor at Tel Aviv University, before returning to Australia in 1972 to teach history at the Canberra College of Advanced Education.
[1][2][3] He died on 27 March 2020(2020-03-27) (aged 97) in Sydney, Australia, and was buried on 3 April 2020 next to his late wife Helga in Woden Cemetery, Canberra, after a Covid-restricted Jewish burial service conducted by Rabbi Elhanan Miller, with just eight close family mourners in attendance.