Julian Heward Bell, the eldest son of Clive and Vanessa Bell, was born in 1908. The young Bell spent his first years in Bloomsbury, with the occasional sojourn - especially during the summers - to Charleston in Sussex. From his parents he learned about the classics, modern literature, history, astrology and geology, while he learned some science from David Garnett.

The boy began attending Leighton Park school in 1922, later spent a year in Paris and came up to King's College, Cambridge in 1927. At university he explored his interest in poetry and politics, studying both English and History. He also became a member of the Apostles and wrote for literary magazines, especially 'The Venture'. Near the end of his university career Bell published his first book of poems, 'Winter Movement' (1930), but its reception, if good, was not particularly enthusiastic.

The following four years were devoted to research on two dissertations, one concerning Pope's poetry and the other concerning applications of ethics to aesthetics and politics. Neither gained Bell the Fellowship he sought, however, and in 1935 he went to China as a Professor of English at the National University of Wuhan. The war in Spain drew him back to Europe in 1937, where he intended immediately to join the Republican army. He was persuaded to visit his mother first, however, and to spare her feelings - as well as to assauge her pacifist priniciples - he agreed to join the British Medical Unit in Spain as a lorry driver instead. He was killed while driving at the battle of Brunete on 18 July 1937.