[1] Heath was born in Burma and attended Bryanston School in Dorset, southern England.
[2] During this period he became friends with and taught fellow POW Terry Frost to paint.
In 1953 Heath published 'Abstract Painting: its Origins and Meaning' a slim but perceptive volume appraising the development of abstraction by the early moderns.
He was artist in residence at the University of Sussex in 1969 and a senior fellow at the Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, Wales (1977–80).
Adrian and his wife Corinne were also campaigners to preserve the character and heritage of Fitzrovia where they lived for many years.