Richard Newsome lives in Australia and has worked as a journalist for daily newspapers, radio and TV; as a consultant with one of the world’s foremost strategy consultancies; and as communications director of a multinational media company. Richard’s debut novel, The Billionaire’s Curse, won the inaugural Text Prize for Children’s and Young Adult writing, as well as the Esther Glen medal, New Zealand's oldest literary award. The book is the first volume of a trilogy, and has been sold to publishers in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and Turkey. The book started as a bedtime story for his children and it took Richard ten years to get around to finishing it. The second book in the series is The Emerald Casket.