Author Dick Curran tells DAVID WHETSTONE about the comeback of his debut novel.
STORIES, once published, can take on lives of their own. Out in the world, there’s no telling what will happen to them.
Back in 2000, Dick Curran came to The Journal with his first novel, Almost Persuaded.
It had been published by the now defunct Citron Press and it had been a labour of love.
Dick, who was working in computers for Northern Electric, had studied English at Manchester University, graduating with the aim of writing “the great Geordie novel”, or at least of becoming a writer.
He said he’d spent six or seven years on Almost Persuaded, working intermittently.
“I put it on one side for quite a long time,” he said, lamenting a lack of time and self-discipline.
But his tale of software engineer Tony Palmer and his misadventures had finally made it into print.
It sold a few hundred copies and there was some nice feedback. “But it didn’t go anywhere,” says Dick.
Now, though, Almost Persuaded has been reissued by another publisher, spruced up with a view to greater sales.
“It has changed,” says Dick. “The humour which people liked is still there but it’s a lot tighter.”
Palmer, in the 2000 version of the novel, was an orphan and lapsed Catholic with a penchant for drinking, gambling, country and western music and introspection. He was single but keen to rectify that.
Dick confirms that this pretty much holds good today, although he adds that Palmer is also “a bit of a romantic”.
In one sense, not much has changed in Dick’s life either. He’s still in computers, now working for North Tyneside Council.
But he allows much more time for writing and more discipline and self-belief have entered the reckoning, especially since he started focusing on plays rather than novels.
“I knew a couple of people who were involved in the theatre and I wondered if that could be an outlet for my writing,” he says.
“I know there’s more to writing for the theatre than dialogue but I’ve always thought that was a strong point. Also, with theatre you can get stuff in front of an audience quite quickly.”
Dick set out to steep himself in all aspects of theatre with amateur and semi-professional groups in the North East. It appears to have paid off.
He has won a few awards for his theatre writing and had plays staged in South Shields and Yeovil.
Script-in-hand readings at Live Theatre led to work on a Royal Shakespeare Company and Live Theatre collaboration and with new writing company, Paines Plough.
“These were great opportunities to work with theatre professionals, which is the best way to learn how to up your own game,” says Dick.
He has had particular success with Islanders, a dark comedy set on the Farne Islands. It began as a reading at Live Theatre but had its first full production last year at Manchester’s 24:7 theatre festival for new writing where it was judged best fringe production.
Subsequently, with some Arts Council funding, it went on tour.
“It was sold out at Live Theatre and the actors were brilliant, zinging off each other,” enthuses Dick.
He set up his own company, Farnes Productions, to handle the play and its successors and a new play, Keep It Simple, has been accepted for this year’s 24:7 festival.
“It’s a comedy about an agony aunt, a chiropodist and a failed priest,” says Dick.
His theatre success has meant a new lease of life for Almost Persuaded.
Sheila Wakefield, who owns Red Squirrel Press, saw Islanders, was told about the novel, read it, liked it and offered to re-issue it.
Some changes had to be made. Urged either to bring it bang up to date or set it more firmly at the time it was written, Dick chose the latter.
So his tale of an idiosyncratic software engineer is now redolent of New Labour and the looming millennium.
“Sometimes you have to leave something and come back to it,” he says, pleased with the novel’s re-emergence.
Red Squirrel are also pleased, describing Almost Persuaded as “a comic rites of passage novel”.
Almost Persuaded by Dick Curran is published by Red Squirrel at £6.99. Visit www.redsquirrelpress.co