Vernon Bartlett

Mud and Khaki (Dodo Press) Vernon Bartlett

Charles Vernon Oldfield Bartlett CBE (1894-1983) who also wrote under the pseudonym Peter Oldfeld, was an English journalist and politician. As a journalist he worked for the Daily Mail, and was a foreign correspondent for The Times. In 1922 he was appointed director of the London office of the League of Nations. In 1933 he joined the News Chronicle, and was its diplomatic correspondent for 20 years. In 1942 Vernon Bartlett, Richard Acland, J. B. Priestley and others established the socialist Common Wealth Party. At the 1945 election, he kept his Bridgwater seat, standing as an independent. He joined the Labour Party in 1950 and retired from parliament. He retired from the News Chronicle in 1954 and moved to Singapore, where he was both political commentator for the Straits Times and South East Asia correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. His works include: Mud and Khaki (1917), Calf Love (1929), No Man's Land (1930), Nazi Germany Explained (1933), This is my Life (1937), Tomorrow Always Comes (1943), East of the Iron Curtain (1950), Struggle for Africa (1953), Tuscan Retreat (1964) and A Book About Elba (1965).