David Rees was born in Surbiton in 1936. He attended King's College School, Wimbledon, and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he attained a BA in 1958 and an MA in 1961. He worked as a school teacher before becoming a lecturer at St. Luke's College, Exeter, in 1968. Ten years later he became lecturer in education when the college became a part of the University of Exeter. He remained at the University until 1984, when he began to write full-time. In 1986 he founded the publishing company Third House with fellow writer Peter Robins. His autobiography, Not For Your Hands, was published in 1992.

Much of his work can be classed as young adult fiction. Some of his fiction was contemporary, some historical, with settings including Devon and Ireland. His books Quintin's Man and In the Tent were the first teen books in the UK to have gay central characters. The Milkman's on His Way was cited in the British Parliament by a proponent of Section 28, as promoting homosexuality.

He published two collections of essays on contemporary writers of fiction for children and young adults, The Marble in the Water and Painted Desert, Green Shade.