Raine was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, the son of Norman Edward and Olive Marie Raine.[2] His father was the North of England amateur boxing champion in 1937.[3] He then worked as a bomb armourer for the RAF, until forced to retire due to epilepsy caused by a skull fracture.[4][3] After the RAF his father worked as a pub landlord.[3] He was raised in a prefab in Shildon, a town near Bishop Auckland.[5][6] He won a scholarship to Barnard Castle School, where he lived as a boarder.[6] Of his time there he has recalled that it seemed that everyone else's parents seemed to be:
accountants or surgeons or something. I couldn't say my father was an ex-boxer who did faith healing, had epileptic fits and lived off a pension. So for a while I said he was a football manager. But by the end I was inviting my friends home and they thought he was just as terrific as I did.[6]
Raine has commented on his education: "At Barnard Castle I was taught by an absolutely remarkable English teacher, Arnold Snodgrass, a friend of W. H. Auden at Oxford [and later Robert Graves]. There was no question that he altered my mindset on things and made me very critical."[4][7] At school he wrote "'pimply Dylan Thomas' poems, some of which he sent to Philip Toynbee, then lead reviewer at The Observer".[6]
Raine received his university education at Exeter College, University of Oxford, where he received a BA in English and later received his B.Phil.[6][8]
