The Soul of Indiscretion: Tom Driberg: Poet, Philanderer, Legislator and Outlaw

In his obituary, The Times described Tom Driberg as “an unreliable man of undoubted distinction...the admiration and despair of his friends and acquaintances.” An Oxford Socialist, Driberg was also a flamboyant and promiscuous homosexual, an intriguer and a gossip, and a friend to the Sitwells and the Krays. Living in an era when the establishment looked after its own and the press looked the other way, Driberg was able to shatter almost every notion of polite society. His was a famously indulgent life that included a highly public wedding just a few years after he had concluded an extravagant series of affairs with soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Francis Wheen’s previous book was the highly praised Karl Marx: A Life.