Childhood: His parents were Joan and Ernest Winn. His mother had been an actress.

Education: He went to St. Christopher's school in Eastbourne and King Edward's school in Birmingham. He was a junior tennis champion at age thirteen when he won the South of England Championship.

Work: At the age of sixteen he was appearing in an amateur theatre production when he was spotted by Eddie Marsh (later Sir Edward), an influential patron of the arts, who took a fancy to him. Eddie Marsh introduced him to the world of Ivor Novello and Ned Lathom. This led to him also meeting Beverley Nichols for whom Godfrey Winn developed a crush.
Godfrey Winn began his professional career as a boy actor in Galsworthy's Old English at the Haymarket Theatre, London. He then played in St. Joan and in Noël Coward's The Marquise, at the Criterion Theatre, London. He began writing with his first novel Dreams Fade in 1928, and after several more novels he turned to freelance journalism which included pieces in Woman and Woman and Home with titles such as 'Do We Understand Our Parents' and 'The Girl That I Marry'.
Godfrey Winn began to write pieces for the press that emulated the style of Beverley Nichols with its sentimental whimsy. Beverley Nichols may have been flattered at first but came to regard him as a rival. Godfrey Winn became a star columnist for the Daily Mirror from 1936 to 1938, and then for the Sunday Express from 1938 to 1942.
Later in the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman. After the Second World War he lectured across the United States on two occasions. He continued to write books and he also appeared on the radio and television.

Performance: Old English, theatre acting role. St. Joan, theatre acting role. The Marquise, theatre acting role. Smaragda's Love, theatre acting role as Sylvester Snodgrass. Blighty, 1927, film acting role as Robin Villiers. Very Important Person, 1961, film role as himself. (Also called A Coming-Out Party.) Billy Liar, 1963, film acting role as a disc jockey. The Bargee, 1964, film acting role as an announcer. The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery, 1966, film acting role as Truelove. Up the Chastity Belt, 1971, film acting role as the Archbishop of all England. (Also called Naughty Knights.). Co-produced by Ned Sherrin.

Writing: Dreams Fade, 1928, a novel. Squirrel's Cage, a novel. The Unequal Conflict, a novel. Fly Away, Youth, a novel. Communion on Earth, a novel. I May be Wrong, essays. Personality Parade, essays. A Month of Sundays, essays. For My Friends, essays. On Going to the Wars, a book about war. The Hour Before the Dawn, a book about war. The Kind of People We Are, a book about war. Scrapbook of the War, a book about war. Home from Sea, a book about war. Scrapbook of Victory, a book about war. PQ 17, a book about war. Going My Way, a travel book. The Bend of the River, a travel book. This Fair Country, a travel book. The Younger Sister, a biography. The Young Queen, a biography. The Queen's Countrywomen, a biography. One Man's Dog, a biography. The Quest for Healing, a biography. Personal Pages, a biography. Inform Glory, 1967, the first volume of his autobiography. The Positive Hour, 1970, the second volume of his autobiography.

Friends & Relationships: Godfrey Winn was an accomplished bridge player and became an ornament at the bridge table at Blenheim House. It was at one of these events when he was spotted and then bedded by J. R. Ackerley. It was also at a bridge evening in 1928 at the London home of Ned Lathom that he met Somerset Maugham who immediately invited him to spend a month at Villa Mauresque. They were lovers for a time and remained friends until Somerset Maugham's death. The character George Potter who appeared in a chapter in Somerset Maugham's Strictly Personal, (1941), is a portrait of Godfrey Winn, but not a very flattering one. The chapter was deleted from the Heinemann edition in Britain for fear of a libel action.

Greatest Achievement: By 1938 he was claiming that he was the most highly paid journalist in Fleet Street (where he was known as Winifred God). In the Autumn of 1939 he was the first British war correspondent to cross the Maginot Line.