Richard Grindal was born in New Delhi in 1920, where his father was working for the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at King's, Canterbury and won a scholarship to read modern history at Corpus Christi, Cambridge. During the war he joined the RAF. During the 1960s Richard worked for the Iron & Steel Federation. He was based in London, where he married and where his three children were born. His spiritual home, however, was Scotland; for over 20 years he travelled the world representing the Scotch Whisky industry and wrote a number of books about whisky. Writing and golf were his two great passions. He had 25 crime fiction titles published, some of which under his pen name of Richard Grayson.