Writer, born in Langley, Buckinghamshire, SC England, UK. Educated at Gresham's School, Holt, he joined the BBC as a radio producer and scriptwriter, then worked on the News Chronicle and later The Daily Express and News Review. His poem For Johnny, written during an air raid in London in 1941, became immediately popular, later appearing in the collection Dispersal Point and Other Air Poems (1942). In addition to volumes of verse he also published many novels, such as The Net (1952) and Thin Air (1961), children's books, and numerous works of non-fiction, including a history of lavatories, The Smallest Room (1954).
Portions of the summary below have been contributed by Wikipedia.
He was known for short stories, poetry, non-fiction and children's fiction (including the Hartwarp books). In the 1930s he moved on from journalism and poetry to publishing novels and collections
of short stories.
Do not despair/For Johnny-head-in-air;/He sleeps as sound/As Johnny underground. Fetch out no shroud/For Johnny-in-the-cloud;/And keep your tears/For him in after years. Better
by far/For Johnny-the-bright-star,/To keep your head,/And see his children fed.
After the war he continued to write and worked as an editor and as a director of magazines and publishing companies.
Works
Spring Encounter (1933) And Lastly the Fireworks (1935) stories Open the Sky (1935) poems Jacobson's Ladder (1938) Uncle Arthur and other stories (1939) Dispersal Point and other Air Poems
(1942) The Grass Grew All Round (1942) Beyond This Disregard (1943) poems South of Forty (1943) poems Who Only England Know (1943) Ten Summers: Poems 1933-1943 (1944) Almanack of Hope: Sonnets
(1944) Air Force Poetry (1944) editor with Henry Treece Flight above Cloud (1944) The Air Battle of Malta (1944) Atlantic Bridge (1945) anonymously World Still There (1945) Edna's Fruit Hat
(1946) stories It Breathed Down My Neck (1946) stories Selected Poems (1946) Estuary, a Romance (1947) Low Life (1947) poems Commemorations (1948) poems Shuffley Wanderers (1948) novel The
Europeans (1948) The Pick of Today's Short Stories (1949) editor The Accomplice (1950) The Pick of Today's Short Stories 2 (1950) editor Hero of a Summer's Day (1951) novel Music on the South
Bank : An Appreciation of The Royal Festival Hall.(1951) Pick of Today's Short Stories 3 (1952) editor His Majesty King George VI (1952) Monday Adenture: The Secrets of Blackmead Abbey
(1952) The Net (1952) A Ring for Luck (1953) Sixpenny Songs (1953) Pick of Today's Short Stories 4 (1953) editor The Thomas Cook Story (1953) The Queen's People (1953) with Izis Bidermanas
Tuesday Adventure (1953) The Smallest Room: a Discreet Survey Through the Ages (1954) Pick of Today's Short Stories 5 (1954) editor Pick of Today's Short Stories 6 (1955) editor Pick of Today's
Short Stories 7 (1956) editor Collected Poems (1957) The Book of Leisure (1957) editor Trespass in the Sun (1957) Pick of Today's Short Stories 9 (1958) editor Pick of Today's Short Stories 10
(1959) editor The Leisure-Hour Companion (1959) The Seven Skies (1959) BOAC The Trampoline (1959) A Pride of Unicorns: Richard and David Atcherley of the R.A.F. (1960) Pick of Today's Short
Stories 11 (1960) editor Pick of Today's Short Stories 12 (1961) editor Spring Adventure (1961) children's fiction Thin Air (1961) Pick of Today's Short Stories 13 (1962) editor Pick of Today's
Short Stories 14 (1963) editor The Hartwarp Light Railway (1962) The Hartwarp Balloon (1963) The Hartwarp Circus (1963) The Hartwarp Bakehouse (1964) The Camel Fighter (1964) The Hartwarp
Explosion (1965) Winter Adventure (1965) Tunnel to the Sky (1965) The Grandfather Clock (1966) The Golden Age of Steam (1967) Spill Out: Poems and Ballads (1967) The Hartwarp Jets (1967) Flight
and Flying (1968) editor Suez: De Lesseps' Canal (1968) Spandrels : Poems and Ballads (1969) Take This Orange: Poems and Ballads (1971) A Draught of Contentment. The Story of the Courage
Group.(1971) The Long Time Growing Up (1971) novel Crossing London's River, the Bridges, Ferries and Tunnels Crossing the Thames Tideway in London (1972) Selected Poems 1967-1973 (1973) Brunel
and His World (1974) London's Docks (1975) Lewis Carroll and His World (1976) Living in a One-Sided House (1976) poems John Wesley and His World (1978) Thank Goodness for Cake (1978)
autobiography Writers' Workshop, poetry anthology, editor with Norman Hidden and Michael Johnson
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