 Son of banker Jacob Silas Haskell and Emmy (née Mesritz), Haskell grew up at Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London,
and was educated at Westminster School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (where he read law, and was a friend of fellow Old Westminsters Angus MacPhail and Ivor Montagu).Haskell became fascinated by ballet when his mother prevailed on him to come with her to see the thirteen-year-old Alicia Markova at Seraphine Astafieva's studio in Chelsea.Haskell first went to Australia in 1936 with the visiting Monte Carlo Russian Ballet as a publicist/reporter, writing articles and reviews for several Australian newspapers and journals, such as "The Home", and sent reports home to England for magazines such as the "Dancing Times".