My life has been one adventure after another. As a fifteen-year-old kid I worked on river boats in the River Mersey, Liverpool. At sixteen, I went into the Merchant Navy and served on nine ships.

When I was eighteen I began hitch-hiking through Scandinavia and mainland Europe. At twenty I worked on schooners in the Mediterranean, then hitch-hiked twice through Europe and the Middle East.

I ran out of money on the first attempt to get to Australia in Karachi and ended up getting a job as a third cook on a Norwegian freighter which took me to India, Ethiopia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the USA and Antwerp in Belgium.

The second attempt to get to Australia (to see my brother) I ran out of money in Tehran in Iran and had to do a runner out of that country with the financial assistance of my brother. For further details of this and indeed all of my adventures, check out ‘The Life of Riley’ for the edition in paperback.

https://www.createspace.com/3556150

I’m a brown belt in judo, and I have done some boxing and karate.

I spent twenty-two years as a professional ballroom and Latin American dancer and became a judge in both American style and international.

I began writing over fifty years ago and have written numerous novels and movie scripts and have teamed up with Amazon.com to sell my books. 

I currently have sixteen titles for sale: eight novels: ‘Bell’s Lot’ an exciting detective drama set in Sydney; 

‘The last Dance’, a romance drama set in the cauldron of the dance world; 

Third, ‘The Dying Sea’, about Eco-terrorism gone wrong; 

Fourth is ‘Stringer’s War’, about the conflicts of a young American boy who was brought up in Japan, but because of war he and his family were forced to move back home. The subsequent trials and travails of the boy/man take up the main part of the story. 

My fifth novel is ‘Death of a Queen’ A cruise ship is attacked by pirates. 

My other titles are:

'Ripples on the Lake', a story of a world-famous preacher whose death in an avalanche and subsequent revival cause a great stir around the world. 

'Gun Down Under' is a story of a Japanese police Inspector and an Australian Detective Sergeant who, together, take on the Yakuza in both Australia and Japan.

BLACK LOOKS is my latest book. A group of wealthy speculators come to Australia on a business investment trip, but become marooned on a remote stretch of coastline near Darwin. Tension and drama follows.

​‘The Life of Riley, a tongue-in-cheek autobiography’,  This book is under reconstruction. The builders are in, the truck is loaded up and the cattle dog is in the back with its tongue hanging out and looking happy.

‘The Reluctant Tourist’, is a comical travelogue. 

The Reluctant Tourist - Part Two is the second book in the travel series. The Reluctant Tourist- Part Three has now been added.

‘Maddie and the Chipmunk’ is a children’s story about a friendship between a cat and a chipmunk.

Three comedies follow: 

'Conspiracy - The Dark Side of the Moon', an ex-CIA officer tries to blow the whistle on four Security Agencies.

'Q-300' is a story about three teenage super geniuses who invent a method of teleportation and the government and other nefarious people want in on it. 

'I Can Fly!' is a story about a boy who, in a dream, discovers the means to fly. Will it work while he is awake?

​I wrote and directed a pilot for a children’s television series, called ‘The Magician’. It was a vehicle for showing the difficulties children have in growing up. The pilot dealt with bullying. Sadly, the television station for which I wrote and directed my work, went belly up whilst we were in post-production.

My motivation for writing is from life itself. I draw on my past, but I rely heavily on my observations of people and their motivations. I don’t subscribe to the notion that people really change their character during their life - the so-called ‘arc’ in movie parlance - and it is that belief in the basic flaw of humans that gives me much fodder for my works.

​Cheers,

 Frank Riley

Covid and two bouts of cancer (Bowel and Liver) slowed my output somewhat, but now I'm back on track - still on chemotherapy - but getting better by the day.

I look forward to hearing from you. 

FR