Roberts said that on coming of age he drew up a list of aims for his next 15 years, which included a solid career as a novelist, membership of Parliament, ownership of a
country house and a London
pied-à-terre, and marriage with two sons and a daughter. Some were achieved, but not the last. In private he claimed proudly to have been a lover of
Laurence Olivier,
Ivor Novello, Baron
Gottfried von Cramm,
Somerset Maugham, and
Prince George, Duke of Kent. However, his autobiography is discreet: "I don't want any ," he said, adding he was "nauseated by the striptease school of writers". In later life Roberts's creative industry was impressive, but he gained repute as a name-dropping bore, the Canadian writer
David Watmough dubbing him as "an irascible old fart". According to an obituary, his main personal trait was "magnetic egocentricity" – so fascinated by himself and his doings as to succeed uncannily in conveying that fascination to others, even against their will. Roberts's life often resembled a 20th-century grand tour, strewn with places in the sun, grand seigneurs and charming hostesses, with him as a fastidious literary pilgrim. Roberts settled in Italy in the early 1950s, living in
Alassio near
Genoa, and then for many years in the Grand Hotel, Rome. He was awarded the Italian Gold Medal in 1966. He donated his papers to
Churchill College, Cambridge in 1975. He died in Rome in 1976. ==Works==