Richard Mason (16 May 1919 – 13 October 1997) was a British novelist. Born near Manchester, he was educated in Dorset, then worked first on a film magazine and later for the British Council. The Second World War gave him a chance to learn Japanese and he became an interrogator of prisoners of war.
As an author Mason wrote The Wind Cannot Read which was finished during the Burma Campaign; The Shadow and the Peak (filmed as Passionate Summer, starring Dirk Bogarde); and The Fever Tree, a story of espionage set in India and Nepal.
His experiences while living in Hong Kong inspired him to write The World of Suzie Wong. This was adapted into a Broadway play in 1958 and later into the film, The World of Suzie Wong, in 1960, starring William Holden and Nancy Kwan.
Mason, a cigarette smoker, died of throat cancer in Rome, Italy, where he had lived for nearly 40 years.