Robin Forsythe was born Robert Forsythe in Sialkot, Pakistan. He went to school in Glasgow and Northern Ireland. After school he went to London where he worked as a clerk at Somerset House in London. In 1928, he was arrested for theft and fraud and sentenced to fifteen months. In prison he started to write dective novels. He is the creator of 'Anthony "Algernon" Vereker', an artist and amateur sleuth.