He attended the University of Toronto and received a B.A in modern History in 1949, and an M.A in English Literature in 1952.
[3] Coles' writing began to take off after he received a British Council grant, which allowed him a year in Italy.
[4] Coles spent the following ten to twelve years traveling around Europe and lived in London, Stockholm, Florence, Munich, Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Zurich.
[5] After he returned home in 1965 he joined the faculty of York University, where he worked for 30 years.
These early influences were Thomas Hardy, Philip Larkin, Donald Hall, John Berryman and Margaret Atwood, with whom he worked at York University.