Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh grew up in a comfortable middle-class London suburb, the son of Arthur Waugh, a well-known literary critic and publisher, and Catherine Charlotte Raban Waugh. He recalled his childhood as being particularly happy although there are indications that he felt his older brother, Alec, who was later to become a non-fiction writer and novelist whose books were often best-sellers, received more love and attention from their parents.

Reading and writing were a daily part of the Waugh home environment. The parents read stories aloud to their sons, and books were a major topic of discussion in the household. When Evelyn was only seven he wrote a short story, "The Curse of the Horse Race," which has been preserved and published in an adult collection of narratives. He and a group of his friends formed their own boys' club, called The Pistol Troop, and even...