Henry Treece was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, in 1911. He graduated from Birmingham University in 1933 with a bachelor's degree and in 1934 began a twenty-five-year career as an English teacher. For the last twenty of those years he taught at The Grammar School in Barton-on-Humber, although between 1941 and 1946 he served in Britain's Royal Air Force and became a flight lieutenant.

Treece's first notable success as a writer followed the 1952 publication of The Dark Island, the first of many historical novels he would write. He had earlier published several volumes of original poetry and some criticism, including a book on the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

An extremely prolific writer, Treece also published many historical novels for adults, including The Rebels (1953), The Golden Strangers (1956), The Great Captains (1956), Red Queen, White Queen (1958), The Master of Badger's Hall (1959), A Fighting Man (1960), Jason (1961), Electra (1963), Oedipus (1964), The Queen's Brooch (1966), The Green...