Richard Underwood’s wide range of publications is a reflection of his wide range of experience and interests.
He joined the medical branch of the Royal Air Force straight from school and served in hospital and medical centres at home and abroad. After leaving the air force he became a student mental health nurse before becoming a police officer in Greater Manchester.
He later became a minister of religion for twenty-years, being ordained and commissioned as a Salvation Army Officer and later becoming an Industrial Chaplain to the Fishing Industry as a Superintendent with the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. Throughout this period, he was also undertaking ongoing training as a counsellor.
On leaving the ministry he became a civil servant at a Government Office in Leeds where he specialised in Technology and Innovation, and became the Company Secretary of a Regional Technology Network before becoming a staff counsellor for the West Yorkshire Ambulance Service, and Chief Executive of a national counselling charity.
He spent two periods as a welfare rights officer, one with Bolton Social Services and one with Salford Social Services, both in Greater Manchester, providing training and advice, and representing clients at Social Security appeal tribunals.
In his late fifties he moved to Suffolk where he became a sheltered housing manager until his retirement. After retirement he returned to nursing, working on acute mental health wards at Ipswich hospital for several years until his seventieth birthday when he moved back to Droylsden, Manchester where he lives with his wife and from where he is engaged in writing and research.
In his seventies he has been writing his Ann Perkins Detective Agency series of novels and conducting the research necessary for his series of popular science books.
He can be contacted via his website at https://richard-underwood.com