Trease was born in Nottingham in 1909. His family were wine merchants but from an early age he decided that he would not follow in his father’s footsteps but instead would be a writer. During his school days at Nottingham High School he wrote stories, poems and a three-act play which the school performed. He won a Classics scholarship to Oxford University and, although he loved university life, he found the tuition dull. After a year he resigned his scholarship and left Oxford for London, intent on becoming a writer. He started to fulfil this ambition with the publication of the children’s book, Bows Against the Barons, in 1934.

This was the first of his many historical novels and heralded an approach to writing for young people that was quite radical. Through exciting plots, strong characters (female as well as male) and meticulous attention to detail, he introduced his readers to a historical event or period, enabling them to absorb history effortlessly. His sense of fairness and belief in equality for all is a theme explored in many of his books and, within their historical settings, the discerning reader will recognise many parallels with contemporary issues.

The stories range from Ancient Greece (The Crown of Violet) to more recent times and cover (amongst others) the Middle Ages (The Red Towers of Granada), Elizabethan England (Cue for Treason, Cloak for a Spy), Restoration London (Fire on the Wind, Popinjay Stairs), the French Revolution (Thunder of Valmy), the Bolshevik Revolution (The White Nights of St Petersburg) and World War II (Tomorrow is a Stranger, The Arpino Assignment). Other exciting historical events of the 20th century are covered in Bring Out the Banners, Shadow Under the Sea, Calabrian Quest and Song for a Tattered Flag.

Trease also wrote modern school stories (an example being the five Black Banner novels set in the Lake District) adult novels, history, plays for radio and television, and biographies. He wrote three books of autobiography: A Whiff of Burnt Boats (1971), Laughter at the Door (1974), and in the last year of his life he wrote the final part, Farewell the Hills. This was written for his family and friends, and published privately after his death.

He had 113 books published before "deciding to call it a day" at the age of 88, through illness. Many were translated for foreign markets, including Asia and Europe. In the United States he won the New York Herald Tribune Book Award for the Children’s Spring Festival 1966 for This is Your Century.

He lived in Colwall, very near the Downs School, Great Malvern but spent the last few years of his life in Bath.

Children's writing

Junior Novels

• Bows Against the Barons (Lawrence) (1934)
• Comrades for the Charter (Lawrence) (1934)
• The New House at Hardale (Boys Own Paper - 2 installments) (1934)
• Call to Arms (Lawrence) (1935)
• Missing from Home (Lawrence & Wishart) (1937)
• Mystery on the Moors (Black) (1937)
• The Christmas Holiday Mystery (Black) (1937)
• Detectives of the Dales (Black) (1938)
• In the Land of the Mogul (Black) (1938)
• Cue for Treason (Blackwell) (1940)
• Running Deer (Harrap) (1941)
• Grey Adventurer (Blackwell) (1942)
• Black Night, Red Morning (Blackwell) (1944)
• Trumpets in the West (Blackwell) Revised Edition 1994 (Piper) Paperback only (1947)
• Silver Guard (Blackwell) (1948)
• The Hills of Varna (Macmillan) US title: Shadow of the Hawk (Vanguard) (1948)
• No Boats on Bannermere (Heinemann) (1949) (1st in Bannermere series)
• The Secret Fiord (Macmillan) (1950)
• Sir Walter Raleigh: Captain and Adventurer (Vanguard) (1950)
• Under Black Banner (Heinemann) (1951) (2nd in Bannermere series)
• The Crown of Violet (Macmillan) US title: Web of Traitors (Vanguard) (1952)
• Black Banner Players (Heinemann) (1952) (3rd in Bannermere series)
• The Barons' Hostage (Phoenix House) Revised Edition 1973 (Brockhampton Press) (1952)
• The Silken Secret (Blackwell) (1953)
• The Island of the Gods (Children's Newspaper - Serial 14 parts) (1954)
• Black Banner Abroad (Heinemann) (1954) (4th in Bannermere series)
• Word to Caesar (Macmillan) US title: Message to Hadrian (Vanguard) (1955)
• The School Beyond the Snows (Children's Newspaper) (1955)
• The Gates of Bannerdale (Heinemann) (1956) (5th in Bannermere series)
• Mist over Athelney (Macmillan) US title: Escape to King Alfred (Vanguard) (1958)
• Thunder of Valmy (Macmillan) US title: Victory at Valmy (Vanguard) (1960)
• The House of Blue Dragons (Children's Newspaper - Serial 16 parts) (1960)
• The Maythorn Story (Heinemann) (1960)
• Change at Maythorn (Heinemann) (1962)
• Follow my Black Plume (Macmillan) (1963)
• A Thousand for Sicily (Macmillan) (1964)
• The Red Towers of Granada (Macmillan) (1966)
• The White Nights of St Petersburg (Macmillan) (1967)
• Horsemen on the Hills (Macmillan) (1971)
• Popinjay Stairs (Macmillan) (1972)
• The Iron Tsar (Macmillan) (1975)
• Violet for Bonaparte (Macmillan) (1976)
• The Seas of Morning (Puffin) Paperback only (1976)
• The Field of the Forty Footsteps (Macmillan) (1977)
• Mandeville (Macmillan) (1980)
• Saraband for Shadows (Macmillan) (1982)
• The Cormorant Venture (Macmillan) (1984)
• Tomorrow is a Stranger (Heinemann) (1987)
• The Arpino Assignment (Walker) (1988)
• Shadow Under the Sea (Walker) (1990)
• Calabrian Quest (Walker) (1990)
• Song for a Tattered Flag (Walker) Paperback only (1992)
• Fire on the Wind (Macmillan) (1993)
• Bring Out the Banners (Walker) (1994)
• No Horn at Midnight (Macmillan) (1995)
• Curse on the Sea (Hodder Children's Books) Paperback only (1996)
• Cloak for a Spy (Macmillan) Paperback only (1997)
• Danger in the Wings (Hodder Children's Books) (1997)

For Younger Readers

• The Fair Flower of Danger (Blackwell) (1955)
• The Dutch are Coming (Hamish Hamilton) (1965)
• Bent is the Bow (Nelson) (1965)
• The Runaway Serf (Hamish Hamilton) (1968)
• A Masque for the Queen (Hamish Hamilton) (1970)
• A Ship to Rome (Heinemann) (1972)
• A Voice in the Night (Heinemann) (1973)
• The Chocolate Boy (Heinemann) (1975)
• When the Drums Beat (Heinemann) (1976)
• The Spycatchers (Hamish Hamilton) (1976)
• The Claws of the Eagle (Heinemann) (1977)
• The Running of the Deer (Hamish Hamilton) (1982)
• A Flight of Angels (Macmillan) (1989)
• Aunt Augusta's Elephant (Macmillan) (1991)
• Henry, King to Be (Macdonald Young Books) (1995)
• Page to Queen Jane (Macdonald Young Books) (1996)
• Elizabeth, Princess in Peril (Macdonald Young Books) (1997)
• Mission to Marathon (A & C Black) (1997)

Other Children's Books

• Red Comet: A Tale of Travel in the USSR (Lawrence) (1937)
• Fortune, My Foe: The Story of Sir Walter Raleigh (Methuen) (1949)
• The Mystery of Moorside Farm - also contains The Secret of Sharn and In the Blood (Macmillan) (1949)
• The Young Traveller in India and Pakistan (Phoenix House) (1949)
• Enjoying Books (Phoenix House) (1951)
• The Young Traveller in England and Wales (Phoenix House) (1953)
• Seven Queens of England (Heinemann) (1953)
• Seven Kings of England (Heinemann) (1955)
• The Young Traveller in Greece (Phoenix House) (1956)
• Edward Elgar, Maker of Music (Macmillan) (1960)
• The Young Writer (Nelson) (1961)
• Wolfgang Mozart : The Young Composer (Macmillan) (1961)
• Seven Stages (Heinemann) (1964)
• This is Your Century (Heinemann) (1965)
• Seven Sovereign Queens (Heinemann) (1968)
• Byron, A Poet Dangerous to Know (Macmillan) (1969)
• D.H. Lawrence, The Phoenix and the Flame (Macmillan) (1973)
• Days to Remember, A Garland of Historic Anniversaries (Heinemann) Short Stories (1973)
• Britain Yesterday (Basil Blackwell) (1975)
• A Wood by Moonlight and other Stories (Heinemann) Short Stories (1981)
• Timechanges: The Evolution of Everyday Life (Kingfisher) (1985)
• Looking through History: The Edwardian Era (Batsford) (1986)
• Hidden Treasure (Evans) (1989)

Adult

Novels

• Such Divinity (Chapman and Hall) (1939)
• Only Natural (Chapman and Hall) (1940)
• Snared Nightingale (Macmillan) (1957)
• So Wild the Heart (Macmillan) (1959)

Autobiography

• A Whiff of Burnt Boats (Macmillan) (1971)
• Laughter at the Door (Macmillan) (1974)
• Farewell the Hills (Privately Printed) (1998)

Other Adult

• The Supreme Prize (Arthur H Stockwell) Poems (c1926)
• The Unsleeping Sword (Martin Lawrence) (1934)
• Walking in England (Fenland Press) (1935)
• North Sea Spy (Fore) (1939)
• Clem Voroshilov - The Red Marshall (Pilot Press) (1940)
• Army without Banners (Fore) (1945)
• Tales Out of School (Heinemann) Revised Edition 1964 (1948)
• The Italian Story : From the Earliest Times to 1946 (Macmillan) (1963)
• The Grand Tour (Heinemann) (1967)
• Matthew Todd's Journal (Editor) (Heinemann) (1968)
• Nottingham: A Biography (Macmillan) (1970)
• The Condottieri: Soldiers of Fortune (Thames and Hudson) (1971)
• Samuel Pepys and his World (Thames and Hudson) (1972)
• London: A Concise History (Thames and Hudson) (1975)
• Portrait of a Cavalier (Macmillan) Biography (1979)

Published Plays

• After the Tempest (published in Best One Act Plays of 1938) (Muller) (1938)
• The Dragon Who Was Different and Other Plays for Children (Muller) (1938)
• The Shadow of Spain and Other Plays (Blackwell) (1953)