Bill Condon was born in 1949 and lives with his wife in the seaside town of Woonona, on the south coast of New South Wales. He left school at the first chance he got and worked in an assortment of jobs that did not require much in the way of qualifications. All that time he longed to be a writer, the only vocation he felt an affinity for. He has since written 70 books, including several collections of plays and poetry, as well as short stories, novels and works of non-fiction. When not writing or performing at schools Bill plays tennis, Scrabble, watches lots of movies, and dreams of swimming in his own personal money bin, like his childhood hero Scrooge McDuck.