Croall was brought up in Battersea in south London: his father was the film and stage actor John Stuart, his mother the actress, teacher and voice coach Barbara Francis.

After teaching English at the Lycée Jean-Baptiste-Say in Paris, he worked as an editor in publishing with Cassell, Penguin, Oxford University Press, and Writers and Readers; later he was managing editor of Bedford Square Press.

He is the author of twenty books, most notably biographies of AS Neill, John Gielgud and Sybil Thorndike, and books about productions of Hamlet, Bacchai and Mother Clap's Molly House at the National Theatre in Britain.

The Coming of Godot: A Short History of a Masterpiece was nominated for the 2005 Theatre Book Prize.

His latest work is Forgotten Stars: My Father and the British Silent Film World.