Barron studied Architecture at London University, qualifying in 1944. After the war, he travelled in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. In 1950 he married and later had two daughters. He practiced as an architect in Hampstead and began serious writing around 1960. His interests were music and painting.
Donald Barron
The Man Who Was There
Chatto & Windus, 1969.
On a November night, say, the park stilled by autumnal mist and the old-fashioned street lights like so many watery yellow moons, the faintly seen columned facade acquires a haunting beauty...
Michael Locke is on his way to the Canfield Foundation, a cultural institution that provides a cover for his intelligence work abroad. Like James Bond's Naval Intelligence HQ it is situated in the park: various Bond-like escapades follow. There is another park description later in the novel.