[3][page needed] Ellis wrote two books in 1959 and 1961 about touring with Cliff Richard and The Shadows, republished in 2014 by Tomahawk Press as a rock and roll memoir.

According to Lennon in the International Times: "The first dope, from a Benzedrine inhaler, was given to the Beatles (John, George, Paul and Stuart) by an English cover version of Allen Ginsberg—one Royston Ellis, known as 'beat poet' ...

[3] Ellis is one of the people the song "Paperback Writer" was based on, quoting a comment he had made years earlier while in Liverpool, and was also present at a liaison between Lennon and "Polythene Pam" in Guernsey in 1963.

"[6][11]At 20, Ellis retired from the teenage beatnik and rock and roll scene and left England permanently for a life of travel that took him to East Berlin and Moscow, where he read his poetry on stage with the Russian poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko.

[13] In 1979, after his hillside log cabin in Dominica was blown down by Hurricane David, he moved to Sri Lanka where he lived in a colonial cottage overlooking the Indian Ocean.

[6][14] The author of over 60 published books (guides, novels, biographies and volumes of poetry) he also wrote travel features for inflight, international and Sri Lankan magazines.