Alec Waugh, 1898-1981, was a British novelist born in London and educated at Sherborne Public School, Dorset. Waugh's first novel, The Loom of Youth (1917), is a semi-autobiographical account of public school life that caused some controversy at the time and led to his expulsion. Waugh was the only boy ever to be expelled from The Old Shirburnian Society.
Despite setting this record, Waugh went on to become the successful author of over 50 works, and lived in many exotic places throughout his life which later became the settings for some of his texts. He was also a noted wine connoisseur and campaigned to make the 'cocktail party' a regular feature of 1920s social life.

In this rich and engrossing biography of Thomas Lipton, Alec Waugh has recreated the fascinating and complex figure of a man who became a legend in his own lifetime, a millionaire before he was forty, an unofficial ambassador at large, and an unforgettable sportsman to millions of people.
The son of a struggling grocer, Lipton, while still a boy, showed the business acumen that was later to make him millions by expanding his father's small store into a vast network of shops. A love of the sea had been with him from childhood, and yacht racing became the guiding passion of his later years. In 1898 he issued his first Cup challenge and brought Shamrock J to America. By this time Lipton's business enterprises had made him into an international figure. Then a curious thing happened. He bought five successive Shamrocks to America and saw every one of them go down in defeat. Yet each defeat seemed only to brighten Sir Thomas's popularity and prestige. He became, without ever winning, a symbol of the American ideal of sportsmanship.
Never better than in this biography, Alec Waugh has caught the excitement, colour, and romance of a busy and successful life.