Robat was brought up in Swansea and went to Bangor university, where, with Penri Jones, he founded the satirical magazine, Lol. In 1967 he established Y Lolfa as a printing and publishing company in Tal-y-bont, Ceredigion. He has published four novels (two of them winning the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize), two volumes of poetry, and a fifty-year diary, Lolian. He continues to work at Y Lolfa, which is now run by two of his sons, Garmon and Lefi Gruffudd.
