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Beaverbrook: a Study in Power and Frustration
323 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1956
About the author
Tom Driberg
18 books1 followerAt the age of eight he began as a day-boy at the Grange school in Crowborough. He subsequently won a classics scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford.
One of his poems,, in the style of Edith Sitwell, was published in 'Oxford Poetry 1926' and when Sitwell visited Oxford to deliver a lecture, he invited her to have tea with him, and she accepted. After her lecture he found an opportunity to recite one of his own poems, and was rewarded when Sitwell declared him 'the hope of English poetry'. He regarded Sitwell as his mentor.
Later his social contacts led to him getting a permanent contract with the Daily Express, as assistant to Percy Sewell who, under the name "The Dragoman", wrote a daily feature called 'The Talk of London'. On Sewell's retirement in 1932, he took over the column that was renamed as 'These Names Make News', and its by-line changed to "William Hickey", after the 18th century diarist and rake.
In the latter part of the 1930s he travelled widely, twice to Spain, to observe the Spanish Civil War, to Germany after the Munich Agreement of 1938, to Rome for the coronation of Pope Pius XII and to New York for the 1939 New York World's Fair.
After his mother died in July 1939, with his share of her money and the help of a substantial mortgage, he bought and renovated Bradwell Lodge, a country house in Bradwell-on-Sea on the Essex coast,. He lived and entertained there until the house was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force in 1940.
In November 1941 he went to America and was in Washington on Monday 8 December, after the attack on Pearl Harbour. And he reported President Roosevelt's speech to Congress announcing America's entry into the war.
A strong Winston Churchill supporter, he became a Member of Parliament in 1942 and he remained in the House until May 1955. He was to return to the House as member for Barking from 1959 to 1974.
Recognised as being openly homosexual, on 16 February 1951 he surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to Ena Mary Binfield (née Lyttelton). The pair were married on 30 June 1951.
In November 1975 he was granted a life peerage and on 21 January 1976 he was entered the House of Lords as Baron Bradwell, of Bradwell juxta Mare in the County of Essex.
He died on 12 August 1976 (aged 71) in Paddington, London,
One of his poems,, in the style of Edith Sitwell, was published in 'Oxford Poetry 1926' and when Sitwell visited Oxford to deliver a lecture, he invited her to have tea with him, and she accepted. After her lecture he found an opportunity to recite one of his own poems, and was rewarded when Sitwell declared him 'the hope of English poetry'. He regarded Sitwell as his mentor.
Later his social contacts led to him getting a permanent contract with the Daily Express, as assistant to Percy Sewell who, under the name "The Dragoman", wrote a daily feature called 'The Talk of London'. On Sewell's retirement in 1932, he took over the column that was renamed as 'These Names Make News', and its by-line changed to "William Hickey", after the 18th century diarist and rake.
In the latter part of the 1930s he travelled widely, twice to Spain, to observe the Spanish Civil War, to Germany after the Munich Agreement of 1938, to Rome for the coronation of Pope Pius XII and to New York for the 1939 New York World's Fair.
After his mother died in July 1939, with his share of her money and the help of a substantial mortgage, he bought and renovated Bradwell Lodge, a country house in Bradwell-on-Sea on the Essex coast,. He lived and entertained there until the house was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force in 1940.
In November 1941 he went to America and was in Washington on Monday 8 December, after the attack on Pearl Harbour. And he reported President Roosevelt's speech to Congress announcing America's entry into the war.
A strong Winston Churchill supporter, he became a Member of Parliament in 1942 and he remained in the House until May 1955. He was to return to the House as member for Barking from 1959 to 1974.
Recognised as being openly homosexual, on 16 February 1951 he surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to Ena Mary Binfield (née Lyttelton). The pair were married on 30 June 1951.
In November 1975 he was granted a life peerage and on 21 January 1976 he was entered the House of Lords as Baron Bradwell, of Bradwell juxta Mare in the County of Essex.
He died on 12 August 1976 (aged 71) in Paddington, London,
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