Autobiography

I was born in 1904 at Warwick, England, where my father was a journalist on a local newspaper. I was educated at Clifton College (1917-22) and at Balliol College, Oxford (1922-26), an expensive education financed by mathematical scholarships. Thus, during my school days, and in my first year at Oxford, I was a mathematical specialist; to the mathematical training I received at Clifton, in particular, I owe a great debt. But I was not contented with mathematics; I had interests in literature and in history which I needed to satisfy. My move (in 1923) to "Philosophy, Politics and Economics", the "new school" just being started at Oxford, was, however, not a success. I finished with a second-class degree, and no adequate qualification in any of the subjects I had studied.