[1][2] Raymond Garlick was born on 21 September 1926 at Harlesden in London, the elder son of an employee of the National Bank; but as a child he spent holidays at his grandparents' house in Deganwy in Conwy County Borough in Wales.
Just before World War II he was evacuated to Gwynedd, and was educated in Llandudno at the John Bright County School, where his interest in English language and literature was encouraged.
At Bangor University he was taught by R. T. Jenkins, H. D. Lewis and Charles Davies, and became an admirer of the craftsmanship of the poets Dylan Thomas and Roy Campbell.
He met the painter, Brenda Chamberlain, and when she separated from the artist John Petts and went to live on Bardsey island, he rented from her part of her cottage, Ty'r Mynydd.
In 1954 he moved to teach at Blaenau Ffestiniog, as he and Elin decided that they would like their adopted son to be brought up bilingual in English and Welsh.
In 1960 he left Wales, gave up his editorship of the Anglo-Welsh Review and began to teach at an international school at Eerde in the Netherlands.
In the 1970s he and his family took part in non-violent campaigning for the use of Welsh-language road signs in Wales, and at one point his wife and son were arrested.