Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Richard Roper

Today I have a bonus Q&A today with Richard Roper ahead of his appearance at Salisbury Literary Festival this weekend.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Absolutely. Something to Live For is technically my debut but I wrote a couple of books before this which didn’t make it. I had decided that my third attempt was probably going to be my last, so thankfully it was the one that made came off! I was lucky enough to get a brilliant agent – Laura Williams at Greene & Heaton – and within a week of the book going out on submission I was in the mad position of having a UK and US book deal, with some European ones on the way. It made all the rejection and early morning starts worthwhile!

I'm looking forward to your panel at this year's Salisbury Literary Festival, how did you feel to be invited to be part of the festival? And what are you most looking forward to about your event? 
Thank you! I’m really looking forward to it, and I’m really flattered to have been asked. I’ve done a few festivals in the last month or so and it’s just the nicest thing to be given the opportunity to talk about your book, hear from other authors, and get to meet lots of lovely readers.

If  you had to give an elevator pitch for Something to Live For, what would it be?
A darkly comic, ultimately uplifting tale of a man who is faced with a dilemma: to carry on living a lie, or risk losing everything to have another shot at living life to the full.    

Sometimes you have to risk everything to find your something...

All Andrew wants is to be normal. He has the perfect wife and 2.4 children waiting at home for him after a long day. At least, that's what he's told people.

The truth is, his life isn't exactly as people think and his little white lie is about to catch up with him.

Because in all Andrew's efforts to fit in, he's forgotten one important thing: how to really live. And maybe, it's about time for him to start.

Loneliness and living  alone is at the heart of Something to Live For, both for Andrew with his fictional family and the people who have died with no next of kin, where did the inspiration come from for these storylines?    
What sparked the story was an article I read about the council workers who have to deal with the situation when someone dies alone. I knew I wanted to follow a character who did that job. And then I started to think about periods of loneliness I had been through myself, which had led to experiences both comic and sad, and decided to explore that further with my protagonist, Andrew.

Giveaway: Win a pair of tickets to see Keith Stuart & Richard Roper at Salisbury Literary Festival

This time next week it will be the main and busy day of events at Salisbury Literary Festival and kicking off the events at Salisbury Playhouse will be Keith Stuart and Richard Roper in conversation.

Keith Stuart is a journalist who has been covering video games and digital culture for over 20 years, he has written for numerous publications and is the video games correspondent for The Guardian. His bestselling debut novel, A Boy Made of Blocks, which was inspired by Keith’s relationship with his autistic son, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. His second novel, Days of Wonder, was published in February.

Tom, devoted single father to Hannah, is the manager of a tiny local theatre. On each of her birthdays, its colourful cast of part-time actors have staged a fantastical production just for her - a day of wonder. However hard life gets, all Tom wants to do is make every moment magical for her.

Now, as Hannah begins to spread her wings, the theatre comes under threat of closure and the two could lose one another. But maybe, just maybe, one final day of magic might just save them both.

Richard Roper is a non-fiction editor at Headline. His debut novel, Something To Live For, was inspired by an article he read about the council workers who deal with situations when someone dies alone. A warm-hearted and humorous novel in the vein of David Nicholls and Nick Hornby, it was published by Orion in June.