[3] Their marriage break-up was initially brought about by his involvement with the poet Laura Riding,[4] The poetry collection The Withering of the Fig Leaf (1927) was to be published by the Hogarth Press.
At the last moment Phibbs became concerned about perceived anti-Catholic sentiment in it, and asked Leonard Woolf to withdraw it.
After some bitter wrangling, Graves and Riding lived together in Spain, and Phibbs set up house with Nicholson[4] in Wiltshire.
As literary editor of The Bell, he gave significant space to poetry from Northern Ireland,[10] and allowed Roy McFadden a critical voice.
In the same period he met and struck up a strong friendship with John Betjeman;[12] they worked on several poetry collections.