He was educated at Geelong Grammar School, and read modern languages at Jesus College, Cambridge.
While in Cambridge he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He was involved in an attempt to create a successor (Poetry and the People) to Left Review, when the latter folded in 1938.
During World War II, he served in intelligence in the British Army, in the Middle East, Africa and France.
He then worked and published mostly on Australian songs and music, reciting ballads at arts festivals.