English writer and journalist Cecil Roberts was BOTD in 1892. Born in Nottingham, he attended private school, and began his career as a civil servant, before joining The Evening Post as a journalist. His first book of poetry Phyllistrata was published in 1913. During World War One, he worked as literary editor for The Liverpool Post and as a special correspondent to the Royal Navy and the Royal Flying Corps. After the war, he became editor of the Nottingham Journal, making him the youngest editor of a morning newspaper in Britain. His first novel Scissors was published in 1922. Its success allowed him to retire from journalism in 1925 and become a full-time writer. His prolific output included novels, poetry, travel writing, biographies and a series of memoirs. During World War Two, he worked for Lord Halifax, then the British ambassador to the United States. Openly gay since forever, he had affairs with Ivor Novello, Laurence Olivier, Gottfried von Cramm, W. Somerset Maugham, and Prince George, Duke of Kent. He moved to Italy in the early 1950s, living at Alassio and later at the Grand Hotel in Rome. He was made an honorary Italian citizen in 1960 and received the Italian Gold Medal in 1966. He died in 1976 in Rome, aged 84.