Philip Jones attended Dookie Agricultural College in Victoria, and worked as a laborer on a wheat and sheep farm. During World War II, Jones served with the ninth division of the A.I.F., participating in the Siege of Tobruk, el Alamein, and the Borneo and New Guinea campaigns.
He has lived in several parts of Europe, such as Rome, Trieste, Copenhagen and Helsinki. He has contributed stories to the Bulletin, and to the English journals John Bull and Suspense.