Tom Stacey is a British novelist, publisher, man of letters (screenwriter, foreign correspondent), traveller/kingmaker, and penologist.
Born on 11 January 1930, in the Manor House, Bletchingley, Surrey, England. He is the younger brother of Nicolas Stacey. He attended Wellesley House School (1938-43), originally at Broadstairs, Kent, England, but from September 1939 was evacuated to the Scottish Highlands.
At Eton College (1943-48) Stacey became a fourth-generation successive Stacey pupil at Eton, where he was a solo treble, the founder of Wotton’s Society in the field of philosophy, editor (with Douglas Hurd) of the weekly Eton College Chronicle, winner of the Essay Prize, and House Captain.
At Scots Guards (1948-50), in which he received his commission as Second Lieutenant, on active service in what is now known as peninsular Malaysia, spent his leave with the Temiar aborigines in the jungle, and wrote his first book (The Hostile Sun).
At Worcester College, Oxford, England (1950-51), he founded and co-organised the controversial students’ tour operation, Undergrad Tours, during the 1951 Festival of Britain year.