Wow, I wouldn't call Waugh's books "pot-boiler thrillers"! Anyway, Wikipedia says he served in the Royal Marines and then the Royal Horse Guards in WW2.

Best candidate so far is John Dickson Carr - but he doesn't look particularly well fed either.

Why didn't I write things down?:o

If the Waugh book they serialised recently had any basis in real life, he was hurtling around the country, trying to find something active to do.

Oh, I missed that description :)