Howard Loxton was born a Brummie and went to theatre school there. He started his acting career at the Garrick Theatre, Lichfield, before joing the company with Birmingham Rep. Special weeks took him to other local reps such as Redditch, Wolverhampton, Wednesbury. Kidderminster and the Alex, Birmingham and seasons at Worcester, Coventry and with the Arena Theatre before getting to London. After a couple of small West End roles he found himself largely working as a stage manager, including two seasons with the English Opera Group, with occasional roles in television dramas and light entertainment.

Co-founding and co-editing Viewpoint, a short-lived serious quarterly about television, saw him writing his first reviews and led to occasional contributions as a journalist to The Guardian (his first a feature interview about Dr Who with Dalek creator Terry Nation) and show biz interviews for other journals that ranged from pop stars to choreographer Agnes De Mille and then a switch of career into book publishing as an editor with Paul Hamlyn, Jonathan Cape and William Collins and into writing nearly fifty books on subjects that include history and natural history as well as theatre.

He became a regular theatre reviewer for the Rogues and Vagabonds website and  for Camden New Journal and has been reviewing for British Theatre Guide since 2007.

He has an MA in Modern Drama and is a member of the committee of the Society for Theatre Research for whom he organises the annual Theatre Book Prize and chairs the panel of judges.