Morris West (1916–1999) was born in Australia, but lived for extended periods in Italy, Austria, England and the USA. West started writing novels in the 1950s. He is the author of thirty novels and has sold more than 60 million copies of his books worldwide in over twenty-seven languages. West helped to found the Australian Society of Authors, was chairman of the National Book Council, chairman of the National Library of Australia and a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. He was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1997. West also wrote screenplays, radio dramas, plays and was also an artist.
James Wright has been a professional actor for over 30 years. He was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia in 1972. He has had a successful career on stage, in film, television and as a voice artist for many commercials, corporate videos and documentaries. James has been narrating audiobooks for nearly 20 years. He has been short-listed in the TDK Audio Book of the Year awards twice and in 1997 he was awarded the Trish Trinick Prize for the Best-Narrated Audio Book of the Year.