He was born in Yorkshire, the son of a general practitioner, and educated at Stonyhurst College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he studied Natural Sciences. At Cambridge he joined the Footlights and appeared in "La Vie Cambridgienne" (1948), the first Footlights revue televised by the BBC. He was also a member of the Young Writer’s Group founded by Stephen Joseph and succeeded Joseph as editor of Cambridge Writing. His short story "A Sense of Value" was later reprinted, with a commendation from E. M. Forster, in an anthology of post-war Cambridge writing.