Born in South Australia, Bill Strutton won a state scholarship to university at 14 but dropped out after two years to go and work as an office clerk in Adelaide. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Australian army. He was captured by the Germans in Crete and sent to Stalag VII, learning to swear in several languages. It was there he also began to take an interest in writing. He says: "My first year as a prisoner-of-war was the most interesting in my life. The ensuing three were the most boring, but more instructive, I think, than any university. I learned several languages: German from a Serbian horse-doctor; Spanish from a Basque; a Parisian taxi-driver bequeathed me a startling vocabulary. I also ran a camp newspaper, caught up on my reading, and finally celebrated my liberation by tearing up a novel." After being demobbed, he lived in England. In 1961 he lived with his Australian wife, Marguerite and two children in Woddingham, East Surrey.