As a child, Lewis contracted rheumatic fever and spent almost a year away from school in bed rest.

Lewis moved to London in 1961 with £70 he earned from his first illustration commission, the Alan Delgado children's book, The Hot Water Bottle Mystery.

[2] His first work in London was in advertising, and then as an animation specialist in television and films (among them the Beatles' Yellow Submarine).

[7] Lewis's final book, assessed as his best by some critics, was GBH, published in 1980, the title referring to grievous bodily harm in British law.

[11] In October 2017 Nick Triplow published a detailed biography Getting Carter: Ted Lewis and the Birth of Brit Noir.