Bernard Charles Newman was a British author of more than 100 books, both fiction and non-fiction. An historian, he was considered an authority on spies, but also wrote books concerning travel and 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.
Personal life
Newman was born on 5 May 1897 in Ibstock, Leicestershire, England, one of six children of Annie 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. He died in Harrow, London, on 19 February 1968.
Career and works
Serving in combat during World War I, 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. 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, many of those on bike. He gave some 2,000 lectures between 1928 and 1940 throughout Europe, even meeting 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. During the early part of World War II, 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. 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 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 novel Spy Catchers was praised as one of the best books ever concerning counterespionage. His science fiction novelThe Blue Ants has been described by professor Paul Brian in his study as an "absurd classic of Sinophobia" and "perhaps the earliest example of a fictional Russo-Chinese nuclear war" Boucher and McComas praised the novel Flying Saucer as "good fun" but dismissed its politics as "hardly realistic". Newman was a chevalier in the Légion d'honneur.
Allegations of espionage
World War I
Some of his early fiction novels, particularly Spy, were written in the first personwith 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 the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College London, 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, 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 the Oslo Report 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 London after his travels.
