Alice Askew, née Leake (18 June 1874 – 6 October 1917) along with her husband, Claude Askew (27 November 1865 – 6 October 1917) were British authors, who together wrote "over ninety novels, many published in sixpenny and sevenpenny series, between 1904 and 1918".

Alice was born on 18 June 1874 at No. 3 Westbourne Street, near Hyde Park in London, England; and christened Alice Jane de Courcy on 5 August 1874 at the church of St. Michael and All Angels in Paddington, London. She was the eldest daughter of Jane Leake, née Dashwood (1844–1912) and Lt-Col. Henry Leake (1829–1899). At the time of her birth he was a captain, on half pay, late of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot. She had two younger siblings: Henry Dashwood Stucley Leake (17 Feb 1876 – 2 June 1970), and Frances Beatrice Levine Leake (27 May 1878 – 29 Aug 1884).

It has been said that she began writing solely or almost entirely "for her own amusement" before her marriage but she did have one short story published under her own name alone (or rather initials), "A. J. de C. L." = 'Alice Jane de Courcy Leake': 'A Modern-Day Saint', which appeared in 1894 in Belgravia of London.

Claude was born on 27 November 1865 at No. 4 Holland Park, Kensington in London and christened Claude Arthur Cary. He was the second son and youngest of five children of Fanny Georgiana Charlotte Askew, née Browne (1830–1900) and Rev. John Askew, M.A. (1804–1881). Claude's older sisters and brother were: Amy Ellen Cary Askew (10 June 1857 – 29 April 1945), Isabel Emily Florence Askew (16 November 1858 – 30 October 1928), Mabel Fanny Mary Askew (23 February 1861 – 21 August 1941), and Hugh Henry John Percy Cary Askew (18 September 1862 – 14 April 1949).

Claude Askew was educated at Eton College – an 'Oppidan' (non-scholarship pupil) in Rev. Charles James' House, 'The Timbralls', Slough Road, near Windsor, then in Buckinghamshire (transferred to Berkshire in 1974). He entered in September 1879 and left in July 1883. It was probably during this period — certainly after 1877 and before 1883 — when Claude was taken on a holiday to Vevey (between Montreux and Lausanne) on Lake Geneva, where he met the future King Peter I of Serbia – then in exile in Geneva. "I was a small boy, spending my holidays with my people at Vevy on the Lake of Geneva, and at the hotel we struck up an acquaintance with Prince Peter Karageorgevitch. He was then in the prime of life, tall, dark, handsome—not yet married." He wrote this many years later recalling this childhood encounter when he met up with him once more – this time with his wife Alice and during the much darker circumstances of the 'Great Serbian Retreat' during World War I (see below). "At Koshumlja to-day we saw the King. Curiously enough, this was the first time that I have come across him since I have been in Serbia, though Alice has seen him at Topola. He is a fine old man, and neither trouble, sickness, nor age has bowed him." This from their jointly written book, The Stricken Land: Serbia As We Saw It, published in 1916.

There is some evidence that, after leaving Eton, he briefly studied medicine. "Claude Askew Born Nov. 27th 1865. Studied medicine." This from a hand-written history of the Askew family, written sometime in the early 1900s, by his cousin, Mary Elizabeth Stirling. And this detail is corroborated by notices in The Times, that between 1891 and 1893, Claude Askew, "of Guy's Hospital," passed a series of examinations by the 'Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons'. There is no evidence, however, that he took those studies any further. And there is certainly no record of him ever becoming a doctor. Nonetheless, those studies may well have stood him in good stead when, during the First World War, he volunteered his services with a British field hospital attached to the Serbian Army, which both he and his wife (as a nurse) accompanied during its 'Great Retreat' across the mountains of Montenegro and Albania to the Adriatic coast, during the winter of 1915-1916 (see below).

Miss Alice Leake and Mr. Claude Askew were married on 10 July 1900, at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, London.

At the time of their marriage, Claude Askew was living at 4D Hyde Park Mansions in the borough of Marylebone; while Alice Leake was still living with her mother at No. 3 Westbourne Street, where she had been born. Claude was also given as residing there at the time of the 1901 Census (March 31). However, by the time of the birth of their first child, they were together at his flat, 4D Hyde Park Mansions, where their son Geoffrey was born on 12 April 1901. By the time of the birth of their daughter, Joan on 5 July 1903, they had moved just around the corner to another flat in another building, 11B Oxford and Cambridge Mansions. Both of these mansion buildings north of Hyde Park, between Edgware Road and Marylebone Road, have a very distinctive and similar architecture. « Built in 1885, the Hyde Park, Oxford and Cambridge mansions are some of the capital’s most enduring examples of Victorian architecture. The buildings highlight a unique period in the nation’s history when the upper-middle class longed for expansive flats and substantial leases, but without the responsibilities of a house and access to porters to service the property. »