Officers and Gentlemen was sent off to the publishers in November 1954. In January 1955, fleeing the English winter again, Waugh took another sea journey to Jamaica, where he began the first chapter of Pinfold. Many distractions, including two libel suits which Waugh won, interrupted its progress. It was finally written and completed between September 1956 and January 1957.

The events leading up to Waugh's brief bout of madness are well documented, and accurately recounted in what he pointedly called a ‘novel’ only in inverted commas. It was not a novel because it was not fiction. As Waugh assured both correspondents and later interviewers, its material was all true, but selectively summarized. Hence the work's subtitle, ‘A Conversation Piece’. It is a conversation piece because it is all about Pinfold's Voices. After the event, Waugh's aural hallucinations also provided a rich topic for his own conversation. Consequently, it is very difficult not to read Pinfold as Waugh, particularly when he privately noted that ‘The book is too personal for me to be able to judge it’ (D 769).

Waugh suffered from insomnia all his life. By 1953 he was using a soporific concoction of bromide and choral, roughly mixed and as strong as the whim took him. To mask its unpleasant flavour he began lacing it with crème de menthe, adding repeated doses as required during the night. By day, it proved effective against new, unexplained pains in his legs.

His friendships began to suffer. On a visit to Diana Cooper in Paris, he quarrelled sharply with her husband, also an irascible man. Lady Diana mended the breach. In July the rift deepened in a serious, barely healed quarrel with Lady Diana. Randolph Churchill, Waugh's old companion-in-arms, rashly involved himself as an ineffectual peacemaker. Christopher Sykes, another old friend, found Waugh inexplicably distant. On New Year's Eve Duff Cooper died as revellers on shipboard to America caroused outside his cabin. Lady Diana was deeply offended by Waugh's brief letter of commiseration.

Officers and Gentlemen had been going badly for months. Waugh was worried about money.