To make Less (the pager program) behave a bit more as if it used Readline (it doesn't), one can create a `~/.config/lesskey` file with these contents:

  #line-edit
  ^A home
  ^E end
  ^F right
  ^B left
  ^P up
  ^N down
  ^D delete
  ^W word-backspace
  \ed word-delete
  \ef word-right

I think a relatively recent version of Less is required.