Born in November 1967 in Gornal, the heart of the Black Country, Richard was an adventurous, though conversely, often introvert boy who would disappear for the day to nearby fields and hills, finding adventure around every corner. His love of the outdoors led to an early interest in bird watching and wildlife in general which, following a family holiday to Scotland, suddenly materialised as a real passion for fish, fishing and anything to do with water.

He started work as a trainee technical draughtsman in Wolverhampton after leaving sixth form college with three ‘A’ levels and no clue regarding his future; a job he was to hold for nearly four years and that was to prove invaluable in his future life. Not only is it where he met his wife Max, it also provided him with the knowledge, once coaxed from out of the really dim recesses of his mind, to be able to pick up where he left off all those years ago. He now runs a successful business (Richard Neath Drawing and Design Services), providing drawing services for ‘pretty much anything to do with land and building’.

He was eighteen when he started his first novel. ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ told the tale of a young man spurned and the escape from his life into a new, less pressured, less complicated one. It lies, unfinished, somewhere.

After falling into the Financial Services Industry, he spent the next twelve years trying to get out, a blossoming concern for the industry and what it stood for, slowly growing into an almost physical dislike, which was solved, in an instant, when he was made redundant in November 2003, three days before the launch of his novel ‘A Fall of Stone’.

Over the next two years, he wrote his second full novel ‘Breakfast Will Do’, sold twelve hundred copies of his first one, had a second print run commissioned, became a regular contributor to the highly esteemed literary angling magazine ‘Waterlog’ and moved house to the Isle of Skye in October 2005. Shortly after moving he set up his drawing and design practice following the success of his drawings for his own house. He lives in the small hamlet of Kildonan with Max and their two beagles, Harry and Bella and his ‘next door neighbours’ are his parents who followed along to make their own new lives on Skye.

When not writing or working Richard is never happier than when he’s out on his small boat, watching seals, dolphins, the occasional whale and catching fish for supper.