GEORGE NORMAN DOUGLAS was born 8 December 1868 in Thüringen, Austria (his surname was registered at birth as Douglass). His mother was Vanda von Poellnitz. His father was John Sholto Douglas (1845-1874), manager of a cotton mill, who died when Norman was about six. Norman was brought up mainly at Tilquhillie, Deeside, Scotland, his paternal home. He was educated at Uppingham School, England, and then at a grammar school in Karlsruhe. Norman's paternal grandfather was the 14th Laird of Tilquhillie. Norman's maternal great-grandfather was General James Ochoncar Forbes (1765-1843), 17th Lord Forbes.

Douglas joined the diplomatic service in 1894 but was placed on leave in unclear circumstances (possibly involving a scandal). In 1897 he bought a villa in Naples. The next year he married Elizabeth Louisa Theobaldina FitzGibbon, a cousin (their mothers were sisters, daughters of Baron Ernst von Poellnitz). They had two children, but divorced in 1903 on grounds of Elizabeth's infidelity. Norman's first book publication, Unprofessional Tales (1901), was written under the pseudonym Normyx, in collaboration with Elizabeth.

He next moved to Capri, spending time there and in London, and became a more committed writer. Nepenthe, the fictional island setting of his best-known novel South Wind, is Capri in light disguise. In 1912-1914 he worked for The English Review. He met D. H. Lawrence through this connection. This led to a feud, after Lawrence in Aaron's Rod (1922) based a character on Douglas. After jumping bail in London upon being charged with indecent assault, he lived in exile for much of the remainder of his life.

During Douglas's years in Florence, he was associated with the publisher and bookseller Pino Orioli, who published in Italy a number of Douglas's books and also works by other English authors, many of which (such as the first edition of Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover), would have been prosecuted for obscenity if published in London.

Further scandals led to Douglas leaving Italy for the south of France in 1937. During World War II Douglas left France, and on a circuitous journey to London, where he lived from 1942 to 1946, he published the first edition of his Almanac in a tiny edition in Lisbon. He returned to Capri, where his circle of acquaintances included the writer Graham Greene. He died in Capri, apparently of his own hand, in 1952 after a long illness.