Richard Beard
Caucasian man with brown hair, blue eyes, wearing brown sweater over white checked open-collar shirt
BornRichard James Beard
(1967-01-12) 12 January 1967
Swindon, Wiltshire, England
OccupationAuthor
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materPembroke College, Cambridge
University of East Anglia
GenreLiterary fiction, non-fiction, Autobiography
Notable worksDamascus
Acts of the Assassins
The Day That Went Missing
Notable awards2018 PEN/Ackerley Prize
Children3
Website
Richard Beard Writer

Richard James Beard (born 12 January 1967) is an English author of fiction and non-fiction books and short literature. He is the winner of the 2018 PEN/Ackerley prize for his memoir The Day That Went Missing.

Early life and education

Beard was born in Swindon, England. He is the second of four sons of Felicity, a former nurse, and Colin, an executive with a family construction company. When he was a teenager, his parents adopted two daughters.[1]

When Beard was eleven years old, his younger brother Nicky drowned while the two of them were swimming together in the sea on a family holiday in Cornwall, out of sight of anyone else. This event and its aftermath would be recounted by Beard forty years later in his 2017 memoir The Day That Went Missing.[1]

Beard was educated at Pinewood School,[2] a boys' 'prep' boarding school from the age of eight,[1] and then later at the public school Radley College, leaving in 1985.[3]

He earned a bachelor's degree in English from Pembroke College, Cambridge University. He later completed a master's degree in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at the University of East Anglia.[4]

Writing career

Novels

Beard's first few novels are experimental works in the literary tradition of Oulipo, in which an artificial constraint is imposed on the narrative. X20, A Novel of Not Smoking (1996) is constructed in twenty parts, each containing an identical number of words, to represent the twenty cigarettes in a pack (the story's narrator is trying to quit the habit and makes himself write something every time he has the urge to light up).[5] In 1997, it was a New York Times Summer Reading Selection. The Sunday Times called it "an unusually intelligent, funny and readable first book."[6]

All of the action in Beard's second novel, Damascus (1998), occurs on 1 November 1993 (the day on which the Maastricht Treaty took effect and all British people became citizens of the European Union), and in writing it, he used – with twelve notable exceptions – only nouns which appeared in the issue of The Times published on that day. The book uses a nonlinear timeline to tell the tale of a young couple who meet in person for the first time since they were children, fall into bed together and then must decide whether or not it is the beginning of a new life.[7] It was a New York Times Notable Book in 1999.[8][9][10] Publishers Weekly called Damascus "Good-natured, witty and freshly inventive... Beard's manipulation of language and of events to make the thematic point sometimes mitigates the credibility of the characters' motivations; still, the brilliance and daring of his work earns the reader's appreciation.".[11]

Beard set his next novel, The Cartoonist (2000), about a man and his teen-girl cousin who set out for a major theme park with plans for sabotage, in Euro Disney. But after completing the manuscript, he was informed by a libel lawyer that under copyright law, he was forbidden to use the name of that theme park at all. He had to re-write the entire book before it could be published, to avoid a defamation suit.[12]

His fourth novel, Dry Bones (2004), is about a church deacon in Geneva who finds a lucrative but dangerous new career in robbing the graves of celebrities.[13]

Beard has published two novels based on biblical stories: The first, Lazarus is Dead (2011) retraces the relationship between Jesus and Lazarus, and was described by The Guardian as "a shining example of the gospel untruth".[14]

2015's Acts of the Assassins (re-titled The Apostle Killer for the 2016 U.S. release) re-imagines Jesus's death and resurrection as a modern-day crime thriller in a genre Beard described as "gospel noir".[15] It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.[16] Alex Preston, writing in The Guardian, called Acts "brilliantly original and absurdly compelling...it's a book you’ll read in one, frantic gasp."[17] Philip Hensher likewise praised the book in The Guardian, calling it "remarkable" and saying of the author: "Beard is a radical and inventive novelist."[12]

Non-fiction books

Beard's non-fiction works often combine aspects of travel writing and memoir.

His first work of non-fiction, Muddied Oafs, The Last Days of Rugger (2003), traces the changes to the game of rugby union in the wake of professionalisation. Beard looks at his own many years of playing the sport, from his school days to amateur British and Swiss clubs and on a professional team in France from 1992 to 1994, where he played in the position of fly-half. He debates how much longer he can continue to play as he accumulates injuries and slows down, yet dreads the thought of giving up the sport that he wants to believe has made him a better man[18][19] It was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.[20]

Manly Pursuits (2006), re-titled for subsequent editions to How To Beat the Australians, tells of how his frustration at Australia's regular defeat of Great Britain at sports led him to travel to the Sydney suburb of Manly to figure out just what makes Australians so competitive and attempt to beat them at various sports himself.[21][22]

Becoming Drusilla (2008) is about Beard's longtime friend Dru Marland, who underwent gender reassignment, and a trip the two of them took hiking and camping across Wales after Marland's transition.

Beard's 2017 memoir The Day That Went Missing: A Family's Story is his self-described 'inquest' into the day in 1978 when he was eleven years old and his nine-year-old brother, Nicky, drowned in the sea while the two were swimming together in Cornwall on a family holiday, as well as his family's subsequent near-erasure of both the event and of memories of Nicky himself. Widely lauded by critics, the book was described by Publishers Weekly as "stunning...Beard reimagines the brother he lost. His beautifully written story is heartbreaking and unforgettable as he struggles with the grief he chose to forget and, now, attempts to remember again."[23] The memoir was a finalist for the Rathbones Folio Prize,[24] the James Tait Black Memorial Prize[25] and the National Book Critics Circle Award,[26] and won the 2018 PEN Ackerley Prize for a literary biography of excellence.[27]

Other writing

Beard was shortlisted for the 2008 BBC National Short Story Prize for his short story "Guidelines for Measures to Cope with Disgraceful and Other Events"[28] and longlisted for the 2010 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for the story "James Joyce, EFL Teacher".[29] The latter story was formatted for the iPad app 'Papercut', which combines sound, video and text to tell stories: Beard could be heard reading aloud parts of the story while video and snippets of text scrolled across the screen.[30] His short stories and short non-fiction have appeared in Granta[31] and Prospect[32] and have been recorded for BBC Radio 4.[33]

He has contributed book reviews to the Times[34][35] and the Times Literary Supplement.[36]

In connection with the publication of The Day That Went Missing in 2017, Beard penned two articles for the Guardian. In them, he discussed what he had discovered about both the younger brother he lost and about himself through writing the book, and the emotional impact that it had on him and his family.[37][38]

Personal life

While beginning his career as a writer, Beard taught school in Hong Kong and was employed as a physical education teacher in Great Britain. He also worked at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and spent a year as private secretary and ghostwriter to Mathilda, Duchess of Argyll.[4]

An avid sports enthusiast, Beard played professional rugby in France from 1992 to 1994 (as well as in amateur leagues in England, Switzerland and Japan).[18] He is an opening batsman for both the Clifton Hampden Cricket Club and the Authors XI cricket team and he contributed a chapter to the Authors' book about their first season playing together, The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon.[39]

He taught British Studies at the University of Tokyo from 2003-2006 (and returned again as a visiting professor from 2016-2017), and was Director of the National Academy of Writing from 2009 until 2017. He has a creative writing fellowship with the University of East Anglia.[4]

In 1997 and 2015, Beard received an Arts Council Authors Award[40] and in 2000, he was the recipient of a grant from the K Blundell Trust. He has been selected as a writer-in-residence at Gladstone's Library.[40] In 2017, he was a juror for Canada's Scotiabank Giller Prize.[41]

He has three children[42] and resides in Oxfordshire, England.[43]

List of written works

Books (fiction)

  • X20, A Novel of Not Smoking (1996), ISBN 978-1559703994
  • Damascus (1998), ISBN 978-0006497912
  • The Cartoonist (2000), ISBN 978-0747553311
  • Dry Bones (2004), ISBN 978-0099459255
  • Lazarus is Dead (2011), ISBN 978-1609450809
  • Acts of the Assassins (re-titled The Apostle Killer for the U.S. release) (2015), ISBN 978-1846558399

Books (non-fiction)

  • Muddied Oafs: The Last Days of Rugger (2003), ISBN 978-0224063944
  • Manly Pursuits (re-titled How to Beat the Australians for subsequent editions) (2006), ISBN 978-0224075114
  • Becoming Drusilla (2008), ISBN 978-0099507734
  • The Day That Went Missing: A Family's Story (2017), ISBN 978-1910701560
  • Sad Little Men: Private Schools and the Ruin of England (2021), ISBN 978-1787302938

Short fiction

  • Hearing Myself Think (Published in Prospect, 29 April 2007)[44]
  • Guidelines for Measures to Cope with Disgraceful and Other Events (2008)[45]
  • James Joyce, EFL Teacher (2010)
  • Lift Under Inspection Do Not Touch (Published in anthology Still: Short Stories Inspired by Photographs of Vacated Spaces: Negative Press, 2012) ISBN 978-0957382800

Short non-fiction

  • How to Stop Your Mother-in-Law from Drowning (Published in Granta issue 88, Winter 2005)[46]
  • Rain (Included in The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon: Bloomsbury, 2013) ISBN 978-1408840450[39]
  • To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest (Commissioned by the International Literature Showcase, 2017)[47]
  • The Archangel's Way (Published in Hinterland issue 2, Summer 2019)[48]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Beard, Richard (1 March 2017). The Day That Went Missing, A Family's Story. Harvill Secker. ISBN 978-1910701560.
  2. ↑ "Pinewood School". pinewoodschool.co.uk.
  3. ↑ Cowley, Jason (14 May 2017). "The lost boy". New Statesman. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 "British Archive for Contemporary Writing: Richard Beard". Portal – UAE. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  5. ↑ Eder, Richard (30 November 1997). "X20: A Novel of (Not) Smoking. By Richard Beard ". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "X20 by Richard Beard". FantasticFiction. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  7. ↑ "What a Difference a Day Makes". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  8. ↑ "Notable Books of the Year".
  9. ↑ Jackson, Kevin (30 December 2014). Invisible Forms: A Guide to Literary Curiosities. Macmillan. ISBN 9781466888548.
  10. ↑ Macintyre, Ben (1 June 2011). The Last Word: Tales from the Tip of the Mother Tongue. A&C Black. ISBN 9781408816844.
  11. ↑ "Damascus". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  12. 1 2 Hensher, Philip (18 March 2015). "Acts of the Assassins by Richard Beard review – the Passion as police procedural". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  13. ↑ Hickling, Alfred (12 February 2004). "Dry Bones by Richard Beard – review". The Independent. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  14. ↑ Royle, Nicholas (30 September 2011). "Lazarus Is Dead by Richard Beard – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  15. ↑ Hurn, Rachel (14 October 2016). "Richard Beard Invents a New Genre: Call It 'Gospel Noir'". Departures. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  16. ↑ Team, Web. "The Goldsmiths Prize 2016". gold.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  17. ↑ Preston, Alex (6 December 2015). "The Best Novels of 2015". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  18. 1 2 Beard, Richard (2003). Muddied Oafs: The Last Days of Rugger. London: Yellow Jersey Press. ISBN 978-0-2240-6393-7.
  19. ↑ Sheen, Henry (5 October 2003). "Book of the month". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  20. ↑ "William Hill Sports Book of the Year long list announced". booktrade.info. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  21. ↑ "Recommended". The Guardian. 28 October 2006. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  22. ↑ "Manly Pursuits: Beating the Australians by Richard Beard". The Independent. 3 December 2006. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  23. ↑ "The Day That Went Missing". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  24. ↑ "Announcing: the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018 Shortlist". Rathbones Folio Prize. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  25. ↑ "Authors vie for UK's oldest book prizes". University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  26. ↑ "National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists for 2018 Awards". National Book Critics Circle. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  27. ↑ "Richard Beard awarded PEN Ackerley Prize 2018 for 'The Day That Went Missing". English PEN. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  28. ↑ "BBC National Short Story Award – The 2016 Award – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  29. ↑ "The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award 2010". Book Trust. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  30. ↑ Richmond, Shane (18 September 2011). "Papercut aims to reinvent storytelling for the iPad". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  31. ↑ "Richard Beard". Granta Magazine. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  32. ↑ "Hearing myself think | Prospect Magazine". www.prospectmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  33. ↑ "Guidelines for Measures to Cope with Disgraceful and Other Events, BBC National Short Story Award 2008, BBC National Short Story Award – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  34. ↑ Beard, Richard (26 August 2017). "Review: The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness". The Times. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  35. ↑ Beard, Richard (22 April 2017). "Knowing the Score: How Sport Teaches Us About Philosophy (and Philosophy About Sport) by David Papineau". The Times. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  36. ↑ Beard, Richard (28 June 2017). "Memories Like Crocodiles". Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  37. ↑ Beard, Richard (8 April 2017). "After 40 years I finally tracked down my dead brother". Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  38. ↑ Beard, Richard (15 April 2017). "By remembering my dead brother, I released the grief". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  39. 1 2 Authors Cricket Club (2013). The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-4045-0.
  40. 1 2 "Writers-in-Residence Celebrated". Gladstone's Library.
  41. ↑ "Scotiabank Giller Prize | Jury". Scotiabank Giller Prize. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  42. ↑ Grice, Elizabeth (5 April 2017). "Memoir of denial: what really happened the day my brother drowned?". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  43. ↑ Ord, Chris (13 December 2008). "Three Oxford authors to judge BBC writing awards". The Herald. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  44. ↑ Beard, Richard (29 April 2007). "Hearing Myself Think". Prospect. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  45. ↑ Beard, Richard (2008). "Guidelines for Measures to Cope with Disgraceful and Other Events". Richard Beard. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  46. ↑ Beard, Richard (2005). "How to Stop Your Mother-in-Law from Drowning". Richard Beard. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  47. ↑ Beard, Richard (May 2017). "To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest". International Literature Showcase. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  48. ↑ "Hinterland Magazine". Hinterland Magazine. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
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