Born in Manchester in 1964, Richard was a musician and songwriter in a variety of new wave and pop bands during the 1980s and early 1990s – he was guitarist and songwriter for St Vitus Dancers - whose song The Survivor was released on Bullshit Detector 2, Crass Records, 1982; keyboardist for Playing At Trains during their UK tour for A World Without Love, single on Idea Records, 1987 and keyboardist with James, appearing on Are You Ready? on the Strip Mine album, Sire Records, 1988.

He moved into writing in the late 1990s, beginning with an experimental short story Between A Man And A Machine. This later became the first Sorber & Fox novel, Machine Nation, followed by two more works in the same series – Robophobia and Exilium.

Richard has received Writer’s Bursary and three Individual Artist Awards from Arts Council England. He has also contributed short stories to a number of collections, with work appearing in Cabala (Dog Horn), Perverted by Language (Serpent’s Tail) and The Flash (Social Disease), along with Litro Magazine.

He has been featured on BBC radio and television and has written factual articles for a number of popular science magazines, including T3 and The Sky At Night.

Author image © Shaw & Shaw.