Spurling began his career as a playwright at the age of twelve when he first encountered Shakespeare’s plays at the Dragon School and wrote a farcical piece, performed by his fellow-pupils, about Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain. In 1956 he wrote and directed a Christmas pantomime for his regiment in Germany and in 1958 his Pirandellian comedy "Char." was performed by the student ETC (Experimental Theatre Company) at the Oxford Playhouse. Following a Sunday night performance of his play "Gerald" by professional actors directed by Michael Denison at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Spurling was given a two-year grant by a group of West End Managers and wrote "MacRune’s Guevara", about the recently dead Che Guevara, which was performed in 1969 by the National Theatre and subsequently in many countries around the world. The diverse subjects of his later plays included Ovid, and Chairman Mao and the Aztecs all in one play; the discovery of America; the British Empire; Racine; the Greek philosopher Hypatia, murdered by Christian monks; and an Arabian Nights version of Saddam Hussein. He also wrote plays for television and radio. Spurling published his first novel in 1989 and by 2015 his written works totalled thirty-five plays (a few still unperformed), four novels, two books of literary criticism and a book of Greek myths.