Robert English was educated at Fort Street Public School and Sydney Grammar. In 1954 he began a law degree and started working as a lawyer in 1959. Dissatisfied with law by the mid-1970s, English turned his attention to writing.
According to Stuart Coupe (Sydney Morning Herald, 2 July 2007) English 'often described himself as the "literary anti-Christ of Sydney", and, not surprisingly, was never invited to appear at writers' festivals'.
From the early 1990s until his death from a heart attack, English lived at Broulee on the New South Wales south coast.
Source: Stuart Coupe, 'Hard Living, Tough Writing', Sydney Morning Herald (2 July 2007): 14.
