Nigel Nicolson OBE (19 January 1917 – 23 September 2004) was a British writer, publisher and politician. Nicolson was the son of the writers Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West; he had a brother Ben, later an art historian. The boys grew up in Kent, first near their mother's ancestral home at Knole and then at Sissinghurst Castle, where their parents created a famous garden. Nicolson was sent away from home at a young age to be educated at Summer Fields, a prep school in Oxford; Eton College; and Balliol College, Oxford. He served with the Grenadier Guards during World War II, later writing their official history.