Osbert Sitwell: The aristocratic satirist who waged a lifelong war against the Philistines.

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: A member of the famous literary trio known as the Sitwells, Osbert Sitwell spent his life championing art and battling the establishment. From the trenches of World War I to the halls of high society, he left behind a legacy of biting satire, nostalgic memoirs, and a very secret poem.

Born in 1892 into a family of genealogists and antiquarians, Osbert Sitwell was raised at Renishaw Hall, a setting that would later anchor his celebrated autobiographical series. His early life was marked by an unconventional education—he famously claimed to have been educated during his holidays from Eton—and a brief, reluctant stint as a cavalry officer before transferring to the Grenadier Guards. The transition from the comforts of London society to the trenches of France during World War I proved to be a catalyst for his literary career, driving him to write his first poetry.

Sitwell’s public persona was defined by his role as a provocateur. Alongside his siblings, Edith and Sacheverell, he launched a series of skirmishes against the 'Philistine' establishment, sponsoring controversial art exhibitions and writing sharp, satirical critiques. His political views were equally idiosyncratic; he once claimed in Who's Who to advocate for the 'rationing of brains' and the 'suppression of Public Opinion.' This penchant for controversy extended to his personal life, including a legal battle over his poem 'Rat Week,' a scathing attack on those who abandoned Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, which remained unpublished until 1986 to avoid causing pain to the living.

While he wrote several novels, most notably the well-regarded 'Before the Bombardment,' his reputation today largely rests on his five-volume autobiography. These works, which George Orwell praised as among the best of their time, offer a vivid, nostalgic portrait of a vanished world and his eccentric father, Sir George Sitwell. Despite suffering from Parkinson's disease in his later years, which eventually forced him to abandon writing, Sitwell remained a devoted patron of the arts until his death in 1969 at his family's restored castle in Italy.

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