Richard Tyrrell was born in Ireland. He graduated in science from UCD but then took up writing. His poems were published widely in literary magazines, and he was a trustee of the Poetry Society, serving a year as its first Irish Chairman. He was a finalist in the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and on Channel 4's The Play's the Thing. After many years in commercial writing, he returned to literature with The Fox of Kensal Green, his first novel.