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 the manner and method of Hot Countries and Most Women, in which personal narrative and opinion are woven together with fiction, Mr. Waugh travels through a period and brilliantly pictures the post-war times and tries to explain what has happened to the war generation. He shows a topsy-turvy world. He tells anecdotes and stories with his unfailing charm. He has been courageous in his deductions and provocative in his suggestions as he turns from physical travel to spiritual interpretation.