Les Robinson contributed verse, short stories and articles to several periodicals and anthologies. His works have been described as humorous, but many stray into the surreal and absurd, with made-up descriptives such as 'gwuncking' (The Ducks Beak, 1924) . His collection of stories, The Giraffe's Uncle, appeared in 1933. Temperamentally unstable and unable to maintain long-term employment, he was a familiar member of Sydney's bohemia for many years, supporting himself by writing freelance for the Melbourne Punch, Art in Australia, Smith's Weekly, Home, Triad and he wrote a weekly humour column for a while in the Worker. His eccentric life, which included living in caves on Middle Harbour, and personality are described in Peter Kirkpatrick's The Sea Coast of Bohemia (1992) in which it is revealed he wrote his own epitaph:
Here lies Les,
What rot, I says.
It's only ten-to-six
You'll always find L.R.
In the nearest bar
On Circular Quay on the Styx.
