John Palmer (author)

John Leslie Palmer
John L. Palmer (photographed in about 1922).
Born	John Leslie Palmer (1885-09-04)4 September 1885 Paddington, London
Died	5 August 1944(1944-08-05) (aged 58) Hampstead, London
Pen name	Francis Beeding, Christopher Haddon, David Pilgrim, John Somers
Occupation	Author, theatre critic
Nationality	British

John Leslie Palmer (4 September 1885, Paddington, London – 5 August 1944) was an English theatre critic and prolific author. Under his own name, he wrote extensively about early English actors and about British literary figures. He also wrote fiction under the pseudonyms 'John Somers' and 'Christopher Haddon' and collaboratively (with Hilary St. George Saunders) as 'Francis Beeding' and 'David Pilgrim'.^[1]

Palmer lived in Geneva for eighteen years from 1920 to 1938, working in the Secretariat of the League of Nations. His long-term collaboration with Hilary Saunders, who was also an employee of the Secretariat, began during those years.