Royston Ellis was born on 10 February 1941 in Pinner, England, and educated at state school until he left , age 16, determined to be a writer. Two years later, his first book, a sequence of poems, was published and he perfomed his poetry on stage and TV to backing by Cliff Richard's original group, The Shadows, Jimmy Page, later of Led Zepplin, and John, Paul,George & Stuart who later become famous as the Beatles.In 1960 for his literary achievements he was awarded the title Duke Gypino de Redonda by the king of that Caribbean island.

At 20 he left England for a life of travel that took him to Moscow, where he appeared with the Russian poet Yevtushenko, and then to the Canary Islands where he acted briefly as an Arab with Cliff Richard in the movie "Wonderful Life", and wrote three novels.

From 1966 to 1980 he lived in Dominica, and wrote The Bondmaster series of historical novels as Richard Tresillian as well as becoming President of the Dominica Cricket Association, a member of MCC and of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control.

In 1980 he settled permanently in Sri Lanka where he now lives in a colonial cottage overlooking the Indian Ocean, and in 2003 was appointed as the Warden of the Galle District for the British High Commission. The author of over 60 published books (guides, novels, biographies and volumes of poetry) he also writes travel features for inflight, international and Sri Lankan magazines.