Beginner’s pluck: Richy Craven's novel is tragic, yet funny

'Your first draft will never match what’s in your head. Don’t worry. No one will ever read it'

Sat, 29 Jun, 2024 - 01:00

Sue Leonard

A nerdy kid with undiagnosed anxiety, Richy was a huge reader.

“I’d read anything. And early on, I wrote as well.

“I wrote a lot of factual comedy articles in college, and got paid a bit for them, but then I fell away from it.”

He tried writing throughout his twenties, but at 29 thought the opportunity had passed.

“It’s very easy not to write a book,” he says.

Meanwhile, graduating from college, Richy felt lost.

I worked in an off-license for a year-and-a-half, because I couldn’t get a job, but then I moved up North and worked for a veterinary pharmaceutical company for a year or so.

Coming back to Dublin, he started working in the pharmaceutical industry again.

“I started writing again in lockdown,” he says. “My fiancée, Shell, kept nagging me. She’d turn off the TV.”

He got 35,000 words into the book, and then got stuck.

“But in late November, a factual Christmas story I’d written went viral. It gave me the kick I needed.

“It took me a year to write the debut, and over a year to get an agent. Then things happened very quickly.”

Who is Richy Craven?

Date/ place of birth: 1989/ Dublin.

Education: Templeogue College; University College Dublin, Environmental Biology.

Home: Rathfarnham.

Family: Fiancée Shell. “I used my advance to buy the ring.” Border Collie, Rio; parents, sister, and a new nephew.

The day job: Pharmaceutical Regulation.

In Another life: “I studied zoology in college and liked it. If I’d pursued it, I’d like to have gone to Africa to work on programmes with elephants or lions.”

Favourite writers: Terry Pratchett; Douglas Adams; Joe Abercrombie.

Second book: “I’m halfway through. It’s a more straightforward comedy.”

Top tip: “Your first draft will never match what’s in your head. Don’t worry. No one will ever read it.”

X: @Richycraven