Beresford Egan was born in England, but was educated in South Africa, and stayed in the country, first working as a bank clerk, and later becoming sports cartoonist on Johannesburg’s Rand Daily Mail. By the time he returned to England in 1926, his satirical bent had been well established. In London, he first became known as draughtsman, giving the sinuous line of Aubrey Beardsley an Art Deco jolt. He aimed satiric attacks at such figures as the Home Secretary, Sir William Joynson-Hicks, as the representative of the censorship of art and literature. He worked in a wide variety of forms and media, and undertook commercial commissions for such companies as High Duty Alloys and Floris Bakeries. He also produced, and illustrated, his own fiction and, during the nineteen-fifties, wrote about the theatre for the Courier.