Wayne Gould was a lawyer for 13 years in Matamata, New Zealand, before moving to Hong Kong in 1982. A former Chief District Judge, he retired from the judiciary in 1997 and, that same year, he was in a bookstore in Japan where, not knowing how to read or speak Japanese, he was drawn to the puzzle which he at first thought was a crossword. He was intrigued and took it with him to the United States and Britain. After his initial retirement, to pass the time and sharpen his computer skills, Gould developed the computer program that generates Sudoku puzzles. He now spends time travelling between his different bases in Lantau and New Hampshire in the United States and other parts of the world to which his new hobby has taken him.