Richard W. Hardwick

Richard was born in Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England in 1970 and spent a reasonably pleasant but unremarkable childhood just up the A19 in Hartlepool. After establishing a career in journalism, which included producing and directing news bulletins for BBC World Service Television, he decided to give it all up for social work. Two years in Sunderland Youth Offending Service were followed by four years at an emergency access hostel for homeless 16 to 21 year-olds in Newcastle. Both of these settings were the inspiration behind his first book 'Kicked Out', which was published in 2009 by Beautiful Books and became Waterstone's Recommended Read and Borders Book of the Month.

Richard currently works with homeless young people for Depaul. Before this, he was Writer in Residence and editor of the prison magazine at HMP Frankland, as well as a creative facilitator in numerous other prisons. Issues within these prisons led him to write 'The Truth About Prison', a book Erwin James described as "unlike any other book on prison, compelling and quite breath-taking." Other occupations have included fish gutting and washing up in Crete, trying to sell Wrangler jeans when everyone wanted to buy Levis, supporting young people with learning disabilities, working in fruit orchards in the Golan Heights, producing bus rotas for a transport company in Hartlepool and doing menial chores for MI6.

Richard is a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and believes creative writing can have a profound therapeutic impact as well as being a powerful tool for self discovery. His second book 'Andalucía' was born from the shock and anger of his wife Anna being diagnosed with breast cancer, and was written because at one point he thought it would be all he and his young children would be left with. Booker Prize winner Pat Barker described this book as "inspiring".

His most recent novel is 'Paedophile Hunters,' which was written after he spent a year following Britain's most notorious and successful paedophile hunting group, Guardians of the North. If you buy this book, take a photo and tag him in it on Facebook or Twitter, he will donate 50% of his profit to a charity that supports abused children.

Gathering his experiences of writing and journalism, social care and NLP, Richard plans to continue as a writer but also help others tell their stories. As well as working in a variety of prisons he wants to move into other settings such as mental health, victim support and palliative care. He believes there are beautiful and poignant stories everywhere - ones that, with the subject's permission and cooperation, can influence and inform a wider public, make fascinating reading and act as a powerful tool for self esteem and balance. He also intends to run creative and therapeutic writing courses in a variety of sectors and environments.

He lives just north of Newcastle, with his wife, two children and dog.