Brendan Rendall Bracken was born on 15 February 1901 in County Tipperary, the son of Joseph Kevin Bracken and Hannah Agnes Ryan. Bracken was a "bright and unruly child" (Jason Tomes) and attended several schools including St Patrick's national school, O'Connell School, and Mungret, a Jesuit boarding-school. In 1916 Bracken was sent to New South Wales where he worked on a sheep station and then at schools in Echuca, Sydney, and Orange. In 1920 Bracken went to England, where he claimed to be Australian (after this date he avoided admitting to his Irish or Roman Catholic roots and later he made a mystery of his background). Bracken enrolled himself as a pupil at Sedbergh public school and then worked at various schools.

He worked on the "Empire Review" and, in 1921, was introduced to Winston Churchill by J L Garvin. Bracken remained a loyal supporter to Churchill, despite heated arguments. He assisted Churchill with his 1923 election campaign for West Leicester and in the same year began to work for Eyre and Spottiswoode, editing "English Life", then "The Banker". Bracken's "social success was that of an unconventional ‘character’: a loud-mouthed know-all, impervious to rebuffs, who gatecrashed parties and insulted everyone with reckless abandon. His witty cracks were as renowned as his preposterous lies. When caught out, he would simply laugh." (Jason Tomes) In 1926, Bracken joined the board at Eyre and Spottiswoode and persuaded the firm to acquire a number of financial titles, including a stake in the Economist. These were run by Financial Newspaper Proprietors Ltd in which Bracken held shares.

In 1929, Bracken was elected Conservative MP for North Paddington, becoming Churchill's Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1939. He was Minister of Information from 1941-45 where he focused on giving the public as much information as possible without compromising security. In 1945, Bracken became First Lord of the Admiralty and Chairman of the Union Corporation. In 1945, Bracken lost his North Paddington seat but was elected later that year to Bournemouth East and Christchurch (until 1951). Viscount Bracken of Christchurch, created in January 1952, never took his seat in the Lords. He died on 8 August 1958.