The son of an English mother and an American father, the foreign correspondent, big game hunter and alcoholic Negley Farson, Daniel Farson became the youngest-ever Parliamentary and Lobby correspondent at the age of 17, just after the war. At Cambridge his student magazine helped launch Ken Tynan. His first job was as a staff photographer for Picture Post. Discovering homosexuality, he grew up again in Soho, joined the Merchant Navy and then ITV at the beginning of its career. He moved to Limehouse, developed The Waterman's Arms as a pub on the Isle of Dogs, wrote books on Jack the Ripper and his great-uncle Bram Stoker, moved to Devon, met Henry Williamson and Jeremy Thorpe, worked with Joan Littlewood, wrote a biography of Francis Bacon and travelled in Turkey and the Caucasus.