Francis Leslie Ashton (24 June 1904 – July 1994) was an English writer known for his first novel Breaking of the Seals in 1946 and a kind of sequel Alas, That Great City from 1948. The two novels concern disasters involving objects orbiting the Earth in prehistoric times. In 1952 he co-wrote Wrong Side of the Moon with his brother Stephen, which concerns space travel.

Personal life

• Francis Leslie Ashton was born on 24 June 1904 in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire to Mary Alice and William Ashton. Ashton had two siblings, Elizabeth Bruce (1902–1994) and Stephen Thurstan Ashton (1907–1991).
• Ashton died in Ely, Cambridgeshire in July 1994 aged 90 years.