Born in Kent and educated at the University of Buenos Aires (1923-26). Croft-Cooke served in the British Army in India (1940-46) before returning to Britain to become the extremely prolific gay writer he was. He wrote autobiographically about his life as a gay man in Britain and in Morocco, as well as producing biographies of other well known gay figures.

In 1953-54 Croft spent six months in prison for "gross indecencies" following an incident where two Royal Navy cooks Harold Altoft and Ronald Charles Dennis had spent a weekend with him and his Indian secretary and companion, Joseph Alexander, gave evidence against Croft-Cooke and Alexander to extricate themselves from other charges. Altoft and Dennis were named on the warrant. Joseph Alexander had been sentenced to three months prison. Following his release from prison, Croft-Cooke and Alexander went to live in Tangier, Morocco, where they stayed until 1968.

Source: excerpts from: Gabriele Griffin, Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay and Writing, Routledge, London, 2002 - et alii

His work include:

Cosmopolis (1933) Escape to the Andes (1938) Nech and Neck (1940) The Sawdust Ring: The Romantic Story of the English Circus, Its Great Showmen and Performers (c. 1940) Miss Allick (1947) Rudyard Kipling (1948) The Circus Book (c. 1950) The Circus Has No Home (c. 1950) Buffalo Bill (1952) The Life for Me (1952) The Verdict of You All (1955) A Few Gipsies (1955) Seven Thunders (1955) The Tangerine House (1956) Sherry (1956) English Cooking: A New Approach (1960) The Glittering Pastures (1962)

The Numbers Game (1963) Bosie: The Story of Lord Alfred Douglas, His Friends and Enemies (1963) Madeira (1966) The Purple Streak (1966) Feasting with Panthers: A New Consideration of Some Late Victorina Writers (1967) Wolf from the Door (1969) The Sounf of Revelry (1969) Exotic Food (1971) The Unrecorded Life of Oscar Wilde (1972) The Caves of Hercules (1974) Conduct Unbecoming (1975) Circus: A World History (1977) Case for Sergeant Beef (1980) Case for three Detectives (1982) Jack on the Gallows Tree (1983) Such Is Death (1986)