Biography

Richard Glover’s most recent book is How to Ruin a Child – a history of the alarming, hilarious and ever-changing advice given to Australian parents. He is also author of the bestseller The Land Before Avocado – a journey into the bizarre Australia of the late 60s and early 70s.

Richard’s previous books include author of Best Wishes, a book about making the world a better, less annoying place, one wish at a time; Love, Clancy – a collection of the letters sent home by his dog Clancy to his parents in the bush; and The Dag’s Dictionary, a compendium of words that don’t exist, but should.

His memoir Flesh Wounds was voted one of the top five books of the year by viewers of ABC television’s “The Book Club” and won the Readers’ Choice Award as Biography of the Year in the 2016 Australian Book Industry Awards. He is also author of The Mud House — the story of building a mud-brick house in the middle of nowhere with no power tools — first published in 2009 with a revised edition released in 2016.

Richard has written two short novels for children – The Dirt Experiment and The Joke Trap, as well as a version of The Dag’s Dictionary for kids, under the title The No-Minute Noodler.

Richard has written regularly for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Washington Post. For many years, he presented the comedy program Thank God It’s Friday on ABC local radio. And, for 26 years, he hosted the Drive show on ABC Radio Sydney – leaving at the end of 2025.

Before moving to radio, Richard worked at the Sydney Morning Herald, which he joined as a cadet journalist in 1983, having graduated from the University of Sydney with a BA (Hons) degree in history. At the Herald, he had various roles including news editor, arts editor and European correspondent.

Richard has written two pieces for the theatre: Lonestar Lemon – a solo cabaret starring Genevieve Lemon, and A Christmas Story, directed by Richard Wherrett and staged at the Sydney Opera House. He’s also hosted many stage shows and events, featuring people such as Sir David Attenborough, Geraldine Brooks, Chris Rock, Rick Stein, Shankari Chandran and Jeanette Winterson. In December 2011, he and author Peter FitzSimons achieved a record for the world’s longest radio interview, supervised by Guinness World Records.

He lives in Sydney with the Australian screenwriter, playwright and author Debra Oswald. They have two children.

He is represented by Anthony Blair at the agency Camerons: cameronsmanagement.com.au