He started work in films at Gaumont Studios, as a colleague of David Lean. He then edited Close Up magazine from 1927 to 1933, founded by Pool Group members, Bryher and Kenneth Macpherson, with H. D. and Robert Herring as contributors. In 1930 he made with Francis Bruguière the short abstract film Light Rhythms, which is extant.

He then edited the little magazine Seed with Herbert Jones, and wrote detective fiction with Roger Burford, under a pseudonym Simon. From 1929 he was also publishing under the Blakeston name novels and stories, producing about 15 books of fiction, as well as ten collections of poetry. The novels are wide-ranging, and include a number of works that mix gay themes with suspense and detective plots.

Blakeston was a contributor to John Gawsworth's anthologies, and a collaborator of M. P. Shiel. He also authored a number of travel books.

Blakeston's work was produced for small press and specialty publishers and is no longer in print. However, the Henry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin is home to an archive of Blakeston materials available to researchers (see external link below).

Many of Blakeston's books are dedicated to his longtime partner, the artist Max Chapman, who also provided illustrations to a number of the volumes.

Films

• I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside (1929)
• Light Rhythms (1930, with Francis Bruguière)

Fiction

Under the pseudonym "Simon," in collaboration with Roger Burford

• Murder Among Friends (1933)
• Death on the Swim (1934)
• The Cat with the Moustache (1935)
• The Mystery of the Hypnotic Room (1949)

Under the name Oswell Blakeston

• Extra Passenger (1929)
• Few Are Chosen (1931, with Francis Bruguière)
• Magic Aftermath (ca. 1932)
• Jim's Gun (1939)
• Danger in Provence (1946)
• Priests, Peters and Pussens (1947)
• Boys in Their Ruin (1949)
• Pink Ribbon, as Told to the Police (1950)
• Hop Thief (1959)
• The Night's Moves (1961)
• The Queen's Mate (1962)
• Fingers (1964)
• For Crying Out Shroud (1969)
• Ever Singing Die, Oh! Die (1970)
• Pass the Poison Separately (1976)

Poetry

• Poems, a Single Word! (ca. 1930)
• Death While Swimming (1932)
• Oswell Blakeston (1956)
• What the Dino-saur (1960)
• The Greatest Romantic Poem in the World (1963)
• How to Make Your Own Confetti (1965)
• The Furious Futures Dying (1967)
• Jeremy & Others (1971)
• Some Essential Information (1975)
• Journeys End in Young Man's Meeting (1979)

Cookbooks

• Edwardian Glamour Cooking Without Tears (1960)
• A Surprise in Every Dinner (1968)
• Cooking With Nuts (1979)

Travel

• Portuguese Panorama (1955)
• Isle of St. Helena (1957)
• Sun at Midnight (Finland) (1958)
• Thank You Now: an Exploration of Ulster (1960)
• On Film and Photography
• Through a Yellow Glass (1928)
• Cruising with a Camera (1939, with F. W. Frerk)
• Phototips on Cats and Dogs (1938, with Edwin Smith)
• Working for the Films (1947) (editor)
• How to Script Amateur Films (1949)

Miscellaneous

• Working Cats (1963)
• Zoo Keeps Who? (1964)