Patreon Post: Murder in White Pit (1947) by John Barrington

John Barrington was the penname of British writer David Harvey John Jones, who was born in 1900. He led a colourful life, and thanks goes to Steve who writes the Bear Alley blog, as it is through some of his posts, I was able to find out more about this author. Barrington joined the Foreign Legion in 1925, although it seems like he deserted and ended up serving some time in prison, before he was repatriated. Upon returning to England though he was soon charged with deserting his wife and children, and over the course of the 1930s he also got into trouble over debts, and he was imprisoned for bigamy. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he used his notoriety after the Foreign Legion incident to establish a writing career of sorts. For example, under the name John Harvey he wrote With the French Foreign Legion in Syria (1928). During the 1930s and into 1941, Steve notes that: ‘Books appeared under the names Ex-Legionnaire 1384 and Operator 1384 – 21 books over the next eight years leading…