Cecil Roberts

Edric Cecil Mornington Roberts (18 May 1892 – 20 December 1976) was an English journalist, poet, dramatist and novelist.

[4] Roberts said that on coming of age he drew up a list of aims for his next 15 years, which included a solid career as a novelist, membership of Parliament, ownership of a country house and a London pied-à-terre, and marriage with two sons and a daughter.

In private he claimed proudly to have been a lover of Laurence Olivier, Ivor Novello, Baron Gottfried von Cramm, Somerset Maugham, and Prince George, Duke of Kent.

[6] However, his autobiography is discreet: "I don't want any succès de scandale," he said, adding he was "nauseated by the striptease school of writers".

[7] In later life Roberts's creative industry was impressive, but he gained repute as a name-dropping bore,[8][9] the Canadian writer David Watmough dubbing him as "an irascible old fart".