No Spanner, they are not dead. Acers are supposed to lose there leaves for the winter. The leaves should grow back in the spring.

Hi Spanner like all deciduous trees Acers lose their leaves in autumn. If you look closely at the twigs and branches you will see the buds of next years leaves are already visible.

cheers for that i was about to bin them

that was lucky you knew about goy spanner . youd have had a spanner in the works if you didnt lol .

Lol.

When in doubt about their viability, you can tell by scraping off a tiny bit of bark from a twig: if alive, the inner bark will be moist and greenish; if dead, it will be dry and brown.