He also wrote a number of books for children and young adults and was the inventor, compiler and illustrator of the Dodo Pad diary, still produced annually today.
[1] Educated at Eton College, Verney read History at Christ Church, Oxford, taking a 3rd-class degree, and then spent a year training at the Architectural Association in London.
Verney then volunteered for the Special Boat Service (SBS), as a member of which he took part in Operation Hawthorn in July 1943, parachuting into Sardinia to attack and destroy German aircraft stationed on the island.
Following his demobilisation in November 1945, he began to paint, in a variety of styles and using a range of media, and exhibited at London galleries such as the Leicester, the Redfern, and the New Grafton.
A more reliable source of income was his work writing and illustrating children's magazines and books; he also had a brief period as editor of The Young Elizabethan in 1961–2.