Richard Parsons (born 1966) of

Broughton-in-Furness Broughton in Furness is a market town in the civil parish of Broughton West in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. It had a population of 529 at the 2011 Census. It is located on the south western boundary of England's Lak ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England, is a former teacher and the author of a series of best-selling

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

study guide A study guide can be anything that facilitates learning in a particular topic. It may be a textbook or other resource that fosters comprehension of literature, research topics, history, and other subjects. General topics include study and tes ...

s. In a league table of the top UK authors, by number of books sold, compiled by

The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddes ...

magazine, for the period 2000–2009, he ranked fifth. Dissatisfied with the quality of study guides during his teaching career at Furness College, Parsons quit in 1995 and began writing his first manuscript, which was later published through his own company, Coordination Group Publications. By the end of 2009, his 600 titles had sold more than nine million books, grossing more than £48 million. Though he wrote the original books himself and they all bear his name, later books were written by other teachers. Parsons wrote the motivational book ''How to fulfill your wildest dreams!'', which was published in 1990 by Mega-Books (Broughton-in-Furness). He also owns a petrol station and leisure centre in Broughton. Parsons, a keen cyclist, lives in an apartment in Broughton with his wife Kyra and two children. His mother, Heather Parsons, is also a former teacher, and his father is a dentist. Parsons went to

Ulverston Victoria High School Ulverston Victoria High School (UVHS) is a secondary school and sixth form located in the town of Ulverston, Cumbria, England. It is the successor school to Ulverston Grammar School and Victoria Secondary Modern, which were combined in 1967 to f ...

before gaining a First in Physics at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. On graduating, he taught mathematics at

Furness College, Barrow-in-Furness Furness College is a college of further education in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. It provides a wide range of A levels, vocational education and skills training to over 16s, notably working with BAE Systems to train apprentices for their shipyar ...

. In January 2008, Parsons donated £100,000 to the parish of Broughton and Duddon to pay for essential repairs to

St Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

and the Holy Innocents Church. His company, Coordination Group Publications, is valued at £120 million, giving Parsons, who owns 95%, a net worth of £114 million.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Richard 1966 births Alumni of the University of Oxford British textbook writers English writers Living people People from Broughton-in-Furness People educated at Ulverston Victoria High School