JOHN SLEIGH PUDNEY - AUTOGRAPH SENTIMENT SIGNED - HFSID 161207

JOHN SLEIGH PUDNEY
The English poet and writer signs this card "with best wishes", in black ink
Autograph Sentiment Signed: "With best wishes/John Pudney" in black felt tip. 1½x3. John Sleigh Pudney (1909-1977) was a writer and journalist from Great Britain. He was known for poetry, short stories, non-fiction, and children's fiction (including the Hartwarp books). John was born in Langley Marish and educated at Gresham's School, Holt, where he was a friend of W.H. Auden. He later moved to Buckinghamshire. After leaving school at the age of sixteen in1925, Pudney worked for an estate agent, for the BBC and for the News Chronicle newspaper. In the 1930s he moved on from journalism and poetry to publishing novels and collections of short stories. In 1940, during World War II, John Sleigh was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer and as a member of the Air Ministry's Creative Writers Unit. It was not until he was serving as squadron intelligence officer at St Eval in Cornwall that he wrote one of the best-known poems of the war. For Johnny evoked popular fellow-feeling in the London of 1941. Written during an air raid, it was published first in the Daily Chronicle and featured significantly in the film The Way to the Stars. In the United Kingdom General Election of July 1945, Pudney stood as the Labour Party candidate for Sevenoaks, polling 14, 947 votes, or 36%. When the war was over, he continued to write and worked as an editor and as a director of magazines and publishing companies. He was with the News Review from 1948 to 1950, Evans Brothers, Ltd. (1950-1953), and Putnam & Co. Ltd (1953-1963). In 1953 he wrote the documentary Elizabeth is Queen, that obtained a BAFTA award. During 1949 and 1963 John edited an annual anthology called Pick of Today's Short Stories. His grandson Toby Perkins is the Labour Member of Parliament for Chesterfield. Pen notations on verso (unknown hand). Lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition.