Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 15, 2012



Tom Driberg (1905–1976) was a British journalist and politician who was a Labour Party Member of Parliament between 1942 and 1974. On retirement he was raised to the peerage, with the title of Baron Bradwell. After his death (grave pictured), allegations were published about his long-term role as an MI5 informant, a KGB agent, or both; however, the extent of his involvement with these agencies remains uncertain. Driberg never held ministerial office, although he rose to senior positions within the Labour Party and was a popular and influential figure in left-wing politics for many years. After leaving Christ Church, Oxford, in 1927 he joined the Daily Express and in 1933  began the "William Hickey" society column; he later contributed regularly to various left-leaning journals. As a biographer his subjects included the press baron Lord Beaverbrook and the fugitive British diplomat Guy Burgess. Driberg was a homosexual whose risky and often brazen behaviour frequently shocked or amused his colleagues. His friends included respected figures from literature and politics alongside outsiders such as the black magic practitioner Aleister Crowley and the Kray twins. Throughout his life he maintained an unvarying devotion to Anglo-Catholicism. (more...)

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