Writer and journalist, born in Coventry, West Midlands, C England, UK. He studied at Oxford, contributed to the New Statesman and other periodicals, and wrote regularly for the Sunday Times. He was founder/editor of Horizon (1939--50), and briefly literary editor of the Observer. His only novel was The Rock Pool (1936). Among his works are Enemies of Promise (1938), The Unquiet Grave (1944), miscellaneous aphorisms and reflections, and various collections of essays.