Howard Spring was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 10th February 1889, one of nine children of a jobbing gardener. Some early records of this site placed his birth specifically in the Canton district of Cardiff; that detail could not be independently confirmed and is noted here honestly rather than repeated as fact. His father died when Howard was twelve, forcing him to leave school and work as an errand boy, though he continued his education through evening classes and went on to become a reporter on the South Wales Daily News.
Spring moved on to the Yorkshire Observer and then the Manchester Guardian, before joining the Evening Standard in London as a book reviewer in 1931. He began publishing novels in the 1930s, achieving worldwide success with 'O Absalom!' (1938, reissued as 'My Son, My Son'), and his best-known work, 'Fame Is the Spur' (1940), the story of a Labour leader's rise to power. It was adapted into a 1947 film starring Michael Redgrave, and later into a 1982 BBC television series.
Spring wrote three volumes of autobiography and settled with his wife in Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1947. He died there of a stroke on 3rd May 1965, aged 76.