Born in Seville, the author became one of Spain's most important chroniclers during the 1920s and 30s. He served as the editor of the newspapers El Heraldo and Ahora and travelled throughout Europe as a correspondent. A committed democrat, he watched the rise of political extremism with growing alarm.

When the Civil War broke out in 1936, he went into exile, as he felt he did not belong to either side. In his most famous work, A sangre y fuego (By Blood and Fire), he resisted any simplistic division into 'good' and 'evil.' In its preface, he wrote: "A man like me had made himself equally unpopular with both sides, enough to be shot by either."

Following the German occupation of France, he fled to London, where he worked for the BBC and the Evening Standard. He died in 1944 after an operation, at the age of 46.