(John Maynard Keynes)

KEYNES sex life was more than a mere supplement of the rest of his life, it was his life because it arose from his fundamental philosophy of living a good life. Also, his romantic and sexual relationships reflected his attempt to escape from the shackles of Victorian – Edwardian Britain. From his days in Eton and Cambridge until the early 1920’s, most of his sexual affairs were with men, including the painter Duncan Grant and writer Lytton Strachey.

Famously, he kept a log of his sexual encounters in his diary, including initials, nicknames or descriptions. This is rather startling for a time when any homosexual act was considered unlawful such that, as he wrote in a letter to Duncan Grant: ‘I had a dreadful conversation on Sunday with my mother and Margaret about marriage…and had practically to admit to them what I was!’