 Clifton was a passionate traveller and died in 1928 on an expedition to Timbuktu with his wife, Violet Beauclerk.She later wrote a biography of her husband, published under the title "The Book of Talbot", which won the 1933 James Tait Black Prize, and was the last person to live in the house.Their dilettante film producer son, Henry de Vere Clifton, had squandered much of the family's wealth and the house had to be sold to Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance in 1963 for office accommodation.