Richard has written over forty books for children and began his writing career as an in-house author, working on non-fiction, first at Usborne Publishing, and later at Ladybird Books. Since going freelance, he has created original stories to support a wide range of exciting licensed properties such as Doctor Who; Wallace and Gromit; Transformers; MI High; Captain Scarlet and The Incredibles. Richard lives in Leicestershire with his wife and two young children. Richard's rather unfortunate surname comes from a village in South Yorkshire, where his ancestors lived. It means 'a dwelling with dried cow pats for roofing'. Lovely.