Edmund Clerihew Bentley was born in Shepherd's Bush, London. In 1887 he entered St. Paul's School where he struck up the most important and enduring aquaintanceship of his life, with G.K. Chesterton. They were members of the school's Junior Debating Club, and contributed essays and poems to the Debater, the club's journal. Bentley invented a new sort of limerick, the 'clerihew'.
After St. Paul's, Bentley went to Merton College, Oxford where he studied classics. After Oxford, he studied law but quickly abandoned it in favour of journalism. From 1911 until 1934 he worked for the Daily Telegraph. In 1902, he married Violet Boileau with whom he had two sons. His first crime novel was published in 1913 which was an immediate success. The public however had to wait for more than twenty years for his second crime novel. His son, Nicolas Bentley, also wrote crime novels.