Paul Biegel was born in 1925 in Bussum, Holland. He went to High School (gymnasium) for a classical education. After World War II, he stayed in the United States for a year and published several articles in The Knickerbocker Weekly. On his return to the Netherlands he studied music and law although he never completed a degree. He also started to write comic strips for various newspapers and ended up as a writer for a cartoon studio.
Only in his late twenties did Paul Biegel discover his talent for writing fantasy and fairy-tale stories. After several years of toiling, he found a publisher interested enough to give it a try. In 1962 he debuted as a children’s author with De gouden gitaar (The golden guitar), Holland, Haarlem. He married Marijke Biegel-Sträter and they got two children: Leonie (1963) and Arthur (1964).