[1] He briefly served national service in the Army, but growing pacifism soon led to him registering as a conscientious objector.
Having gained a History exhibition (scholarship) to New College, Oxford,[2] he lost it by indulging too much in the distractions of an undergraduate life: "the joys of drink, people, parties, fancy waistcoats, foreign travel and falling in love – mostly with young men.
"[1] After Oxford University, he briefly worked for a literary agent Raymond Savage,[3] but set up his own firm in 1952, Anthony Blond (London) Ltd, in partnership with the future novelist Isabel Colegate[2] He briefly joined Allan Wingate, but that publishing company folded in 1958, and with his own £5,000 set up a new firm.
Blond was a Labour Party candidate in Chester at the 1964 general election and was also on the executive of the National Council for Civil Liberties.
[7] Anthony Blond died aged 79 in hospital in Limoges, France, near the home he had shared with his wife for 25 years.