Julian Gustave Symons was born in London. He was educated at a series of private schools. He left school at the age of fourteen and started work with an engineering company. In 1937 he founded the magazine Twentieth Century Verse which ended with the start of the war. In 1944 he was discharged from the army and started working as an advertising copywriter in London. In 1945 his first crime novel was published. In 1947 he became a full-time writer. Besides crime novels, he also wrote poetry, biographies, history and criticism. He has won the award for the best novel of the year from both the British Crime Writers' Association and the Mystery Writers' Association of America. He has been chairman of the CWA, was president of the Detection Club for nine years and in 1977 was made a Grand Master of the Swedish Academy of Detection.
