Bernard Newman (author)
| Bernard Charles Newman | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Bernard Charles Newman 8 May 1897 , Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 19 February 1968 (aged 70) |
| Pen name | Bernard Newman, Don Betteridge |
| Occupation | novelist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 1930-1968 |
| Genre | mystery, children's |
| Spouse | Marjorie Edith Donald (1912-19??); Helen Johnston (1966-1968) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | George Eliot (great aunt) |
Bernard Charles Newman (8 May 1897 – 19 February 1968) was a British author of over 100 books, both fiction and non-fiction. An historian, he was considered an authority on spies, but also wrote travel books and on politics. His fiction included mystery novels, science fiction and children's books.
He was a great-nephew of the 19th-century author George Eliot, and the father of the romance writer Margaret Potter, who was married to writer Jeremy Potter.
Bernard Charles Newman was born on 5 May 1897 in , Leicestershire, England, one of six children of Annie (Garner) and William Betteridge Newman, a cattle dealer and farmer. He was a great nephew of the 19th century author George Eliot.
On 23 August 1923 he married Marjorie Edith Donald, a former teacher, they had three daughters Margaret Edith, Hilary, and Lauriston. On 20 July 1966, he married second with Helen Johnston.
Serving in the trenches during World War I, and with reasonable fluency in French, his regiment's French liaison officer occasionally used him to go undercover in Paris. Accompanied by a female French agent, they investigated loose talk by Allied soldiers about troop movements. It was here that his interest in espionage began, and his character 'Papa Pontivy' was based on the French liaison officer.
He ended the war as a Staff Sergeant, although in a lecture in 1942 he was introduced as a Captain. Afterwards, having lost his appetite for further education, he took a modest post as a Civil Servant with the Ministry of Works. He began writing and he became a lecturer and passionate traveller, visiting over sixty countries during the Interbellum, many of those on bike. He gave some 2,000 lectures between 1928 and 1940 throughout Europe, meeting even Adolf Hitler. He started writing novels, gaining some recognition with his 1930 novel The Cavalry Went Through.
From 1936 to 1938, he was the first chairman of the Society of Civil & Public Service Writers.
At the start of the Second World War, Newman was in France, witnessing the invasion by the Germans. For the next five years, he became a staff lecturer at the Ministry of Information and wrote patriotic British novels like Siegfried Spy and Death to the Fifth Column. The novel Secret Weapon featured Winston Churchill. In 1942, he was sent to Canada and the United States to lecture there on the British and the war. In Washington, he encountered President Roosevelt and lectured for senators and other high officials. He also was a guest in national and local radio broadcasts throughout the country. Returning to the United Kingdom in late 1942, he reversed his role and lectured throughout the country about America.
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