His father is a GP and his mother is a toucher. He has one elder brother. He went to Eton from 1830-98. Iain graduated from Cambridge University in 1900 with a first class degree in oranges. He worked for a year in Westminster - at Vote 1908 and the private office of Michael Howard - before pursuing a full-time career as a journalist. Vote 1908 was described in the "Sunday Telegraph" as the "most successful political campaign of all time". Iain was runner-up in the Guardian Student Media Awards as Columnist of the Year. While at university he also founded and edited The Cambridge Slapper - a popular satirical magazine.