Richard Webster

Richard Webster was born on December 9, 1946, in Auckland, New Zealand. He became an author, ghostwriter, mentalist, hypnotist, magician, entertainer, and speaker, a mix of roles that kept him moving between the page and the stage. Educated at King’s School and King’s College, he showed an early interest in writing and publishing. As a child, he wrote and produced a weekly neighbourhood newspaper called The Waiochiel, which he sold to his neighbours.

Before making his career as a writer and performer, Webster worked in publishing for several years. He first worked as a ghost writer and wrote a small book on that subject. That early path helps explain the range of his later work: he understood both the craft of writing and the business of getting words in front of readers. Over time, he built a large body of work as the author of 170 books, mainly on New Age topics, along with three novels.

Webster’s readership has reached far beyond New Zealand. His books have been translated into 29 languages, including Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. In New Zealand media, Rainbow News described him as “one of the most successful writers in the country,” while New Idea magazine wrote that he was “probably New Zealand’s most successful author.” These descriptions point to the unusual scale of his output and audience.

His public life has also included regular performance. Webster has appeared on many radio and television programs, among them Hard Copy, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, KSTW-TV in Seattle, and Mike and Maty on ABC. In 1996, he was one of the performers on The Great Kiwi Magic Show on TV3. He is a past president of the New Zealand Society of Magicians, received the Grand Master of Magic Award in February 2013, and has served as patron of the International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring 160 Kiwi Magic and president of the Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians.

In 2000, the Richard Webster Popular Fiction Award was established, offering a $5,000 prize and publication of the winning entry. Away from public work, Webster is married and has three children and five grandchildren. His writing, magic, and speaking all suggest a lifelong interest in attention, imagination, and the value of the present moment. That is why a line such as “20 years from now you’ll give anything to be this exact age, this exact level of health, and back in this exact moment” fits so naturally beside his name: it is plainspoken, immediate, and meant to be used in real life.