Osbert Sitwell

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell was born in London and attended Ludgrove School and Eton College. He wrote his first poetry in the trenches during World War I and published a collection soon after the war ended. This collection would be followed by over a dozen books, including novels, essays, and a four-volume autobiography, which George Orwell called “among the best autobiographies of our time.” In addition to writing his own work, Sitwell donated generously to causes that supported writers. He died in 1969 of Parkinson’s in his Italian castle near Florence.