John Cantwell entered the University of Sydney in the early 1940s and had his first story published when he was just eighteen. During his war service in the RAAF, he was a radio announcer and script writer with allied forces radio units. He returned to Sydney University at the end of the war and there he co-edited the university magazine and also had many short stories published. When he finished University, he travelled in Europe and North America, where he worked as a journalist in London, Ontario. Upon his return to Australia he worked for a time with the Sydney Morning Herald.
