Strutt lives on the island of South Ronaldsay in Orkney, Scotland. He studied composition under Lennox Berkeley, orchestration under Leighton Lucas, and piano with Robert O. Edwards, Georgina Smith, and Hamish Milne at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He also studied the viola for one year under Watson Forbes. He is very interested in the music of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and has visited Mount Athos several times. He is also a philatelist, and an authority on the Universal Postal Union.