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Bernard Charles Newman (8 May 1897 – 19 February 1968) was a British writer of 138 books, both fiction and non-fiction. His works have been translated into over 20 languages including Japanese and Braille. An historian, he was considered an authority on spies, but also wrote books concerning travel and politics. His fiction included mystery novels, plays, science fiction and children's books.
He was a great-nephew of the 19th-century author
/ref> Afterwards, having lost his desire for further education, he obtained a modest job as a civil servant with the Ministry of Works. He began writing and became a lecturer and passionate traveller, visiting more than 60 countries during the
page 85 (2004) During 1942, he was sent to Canada and the United States to lecture there on the British and the war. In Washington, he encountered President''Nuclear Holocausts''
chapter 2
Newman was a chevalier in the
Research project to investigate the spy allegations
maintained by Bernard Newman's family. {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Bernard 1897 births 1968 deaths 20th-century British novelists People from Ibstock Military personnel from Leicestershire British Army personnel of World War I
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...
, and the father of the romance writer Margaret Potter, who was married to writer Jeremy Potter.
Personal life
Newman was born on 8 May 1897 inIbstock
Ibstock is a former coal mining town and civil parish about south of Coalville in North West Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish was 5,760 at the 2001 census increasing to 6,201 at the 2011 census.
The town is on the ...
, 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
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...
.
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.
He died in Harrow, London, on 19 February 1968.
Career and works
Serving in combat duringWorld War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, 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 casual 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 during 1942, he was introduced as a captain.Introduction to a 1942 Lecture/ref> Afterwards, having lost his desire for further education, he obtained a modest job as a civil servant with the Ministry of Works. He began writing and became a lecturer and passionate traveller, visiting more than 60 countries during the
interbellum
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...
, many of those on bike. He gave some 2,000 lectures between 1928 and 1940 throughout Europe, even meeting Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. 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.
During the early part of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Newman was in France, witnessing some of 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
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
.Robert Alder, in ''Beware the British: The Role of Writers in British Propaganda''page 85 (2004) During 1942, he was sent to Canada and the United States to lecture there on the British and the war. In Washington, he encountered President
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and lectured for senators and other major officials. He also was a guest in national and local radio broadcasts throughout the country. Returning to the United Kingdom during late 1942, he reversed his role and lectured throughout the country about America.
Newman was also considered an authority on spies and wrote ''Epics of Espionage'' and the novel ''Spy''. His 1945 collection of 31 short stories, ''Spy Catchers,'' was praised as one of the best books ever written concerning counterespionage.
Newman's novel, The Flying Saucer, was the first book with the words flying saucer in the title. The theme of the book, to bring peace to the world, centred around an invasion of the UK, the USA and Russia by aliens. Boucher and McComas praised ''Flying Saucer'' as "good fun" but dismissed its politics as "hardly realistic". His science fiction novel ''The Blue Ants'' has been described by professor Paul Brian in his study '' Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction'' as an "absurd classic of Sinophobia" and "perhaps the earliest example of a fictional Russo-Chinese nuclear war"chapter 2
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
.
Allegations of espionage
World War I
Some of his early fiction novels, particularly ''Spy'', were written in the first person with himself as the main character. That has led to allegations that he was a spy. Newman lied about his age to enlist at 17 and clarified in his 1960 autobiography, ''Speaking From Memory'', that his war service was routine and unremarkable and that his novels were publicised in that way to achieve sales at the suggestion of his publisher, Gollancz. Correspondence between Newman and the military historian B. H. Liddell Hart held in theLiddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LHCMA) at King's College London was set up in 1964. The Centre holds the private papers of over 700 senior British defence personnel who held office since 1900. Individual collections range in size fr ...
at King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
, confirm Gollancz's marketing tactics by asking Newman to 'disappear' for two weeks during the book's initial presentation to the public.
On its publication, ''Spy'' attracted considerable attention in the press. Newman had written the novel in such a way that it appeared to be autobiographical although there were several 'facts' that could easily be checked. Relishing the free publicity, (''Spy'' ran to 18 editions) Newman eventually said in an interview:
That statement was widely reported in the press worldwide, but even his 1968 ''New York Times'' obituary repeated the fiction. Internet articles can still be found stating his 'espionage activities' as fact.
World War II
Other allegations of espionage activity relate to his extensive travels in Europe between the wars, including reports that he was the agent who first reported Hitler's V-1 rockets. In September 1938, Newman was riding around the Baltic on a bicycle, researching the book ''Baltic Roundabout''. He strayed into a restricted area on the German island of Rugen and was arrested and escorted from the district. He had noticed large concrete structures, and spoke with local villagers who reported noises resembling an express train. Reporting his findings back in London, the experts concluded that the Germans were experimenting with rockets. This information pre-dates theOslo Report The Oslo Report was one of the most spectacular leaks in the history of military intelligence. Written by German mathematician and physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayer on 1 and 2 November 1939 during a business trip to Oslo, Norway, it described several G ...
by a full year, and led to extensive research by Newman. It resulted in a radio script for the BBC program ''Now it can be told'', a novel on the Polish resistance contribution to the war effort ''They Saved London'', and the subsequent film '' Battle of the V-1''. In a reverse compliment and recognition of Newman's work, Poland have named two memorials to the Polish Resistance as "They Saved London". It is not suggested that Newman was ever employed as a spy, but that he was an enthusiastic amateur who regularly reported back to the British government in London after his travels.
Bibliography
* Character Monologues and How To Perform Them ''(1926, C. Arthur Pearson)'' *Round About Andorra (1928, George, Allen & Unwin) *The Cavalry Went Through (1930, Victor Golancz) * Armoured Doves, A Peace Book (1931, Jarrolds) *The Fifth Army (1931, Hodder & Stoughton; ghost written by Bernard Newman for General Sir Hubert Gough) * Hosanna! The Remarkable Novel (1933, Dennis Archer) *Death in the Valley, a Tale Based On the Origin of the Oberammergau Passion Play (1934, Dennis Archer) *Death of a Harlot (1934, T. Werner Laurie) *In the Trail of the Three Musketeers (1934, Herbert Jenkins) * Anthology of Armageddon (1935, with Idrisyn O. Evans, Dennis Archer) *Pedalling Poland (1935, Herbert Jenkins) *Secret Servant (1935, Victor Gollancz) *Spy (1935, Victor Gollancz) * The Blue Danube: Black Forest to Black Sea (1935, Herbert Jenkins) * Albanian Back-door (1936, Herbert Jenkins) * Cycling in France (Northern) (1936, Herbert Jenkins) *German Spy (1936, Hillman-Curl) *The Mussolini Murder Plot (1936, Hutchinson) *Tunnellers, The Story of the Tunnelling Companies, Royal Engineers, During the World War ( 1936, with Captain W. Grant Grieve; Herbert Jenkins) * I Saw Spain (1937, Herbert Jenkins) *Lady Doctor Woman Spy (1937, Hutchinson) * Albanian Journey (1938, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons) * Danger Spots of Europe (1938, Robert Hale) *Death Under Gibraltar (1938, Victor Gollancz) * Ride to Russia (1938, Herbert Jenkins) *Scotland Yard Alibi (1938, as Don Betteridge, Herbert Jenkins) * Baltic Roundabout (1939, Herbert Jenkins) *Cast Iron Alibi (1939, as Don Betteridge, Herbert Jenkins) *Death to the Spy (1939, Victor Golancz) *Maginot Line Murder (1939, Victor Golancz) * Siegfried Spy (1939, Victor Golancz) * Savoy! Corsica! Tunis! Mussolini's Dream Lands (1940, Herbert Jenkins) *Secrets of German Espionage (1940, RReferences and sources
External links
*Research project to investigate the spy allegations
maintained by Bernard Newman's family. {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Bernard 1897 births 1968 deaths 20th-century British novelists People from Ibstock Military personnel from Leicestershire British Army personnel of World War I