Herb Payne spent most of the past 40 years working as a journalist and writer. His newspaper career began at the Eastern Province Herald in Port Elizabeth and he subsequently worked at various publications in the United Kingdom and South Africa, among them 15 years spent with the Financial Mail where he served variously as Deputy Editor Computer Mail, FM Property Editor and Kwa-Zulu-Natal Bureau Chief. He was educated at Pretoria Boys High School and then Prince Edward School in Zimbabwe.