Dr Stephen Mark Richards was born in 1960's northern England. At university he attained First Class Honours (Psychology), Masters (Information Technology) and Doctorate (Computing). He was a pioneer of ebook research and developed multimedia ebooks in 1991 which were piloted in schools 16 years before the Kindle was launched in 2007. Stephen wrote his Doctoral thesis on ebook designs which was completed in 1994. He wrote many academic articles on his work and was invited to present his research throughout Britain, Europe and USA. Whilst still a teenager he travelled independently throughout Europe and from his early 20's he broadened his travels to include Africa, Asia and America. He also extended his modes of transport to include canal boats, yachts, motorcycles and motorhomes. He now works as a writer of magazine articles and an author of travel adventure books.