Following national service in the RAF, when he was based in Germany and learned Russian, he studied English at Oriel College, Oxford.
Between 1972-82 he was a member of the Poetry Society, where he chaired the Publications Committee and for two years was Deputy Chairman following the dispute which led to the resignation of the radical group on its Governing Council.
Always innovatory, he abandoned Oasis after its third series in 1980 and started another magazine (Telegram, 1981–82) before collaborating with editors Robert Vas Dias (The Atlantic Review) and Tony Frazer (Shearsman) in launching the 14 issues of Ninth (later Tenth) Decade between 1983 and 1991.
The poetry featured was never the product of a single trend but a showcase of the variety of writing in England at a time when the big publishing houses and mainline literary media were dominated by a narrow, self-serving clique.
[7] Oasis Books were similarly eclectic and often gave first or prominent publication to a number of writers who went on to achieve commercial success, including John Ash, Lee Harwood, Matthew Sweeney, Elaine Randell and Frances Presley.
Ian Robinson’s own poetry consisted in large part of understated notations of urban life that lead to a mood of alienation, either by their very bleakness or through a surrealistic shift of focus.