Earth Island Books are delighted to announce the signing of our newest author - Roy D Hacksaw. Perhaps best known as the singer and drummer from the wilfully inept two-piece punk rock phenomenon Hacksaw, Roy also has a long and checkered career in journalism, writing for publications as diverse as Metal Hammer, Total Film, We Love Darts and GamesMaster, as well as editing the much-missed Bristol events magazine Venue.
Roy was inspired to write his debut novel, 'Bugger Banksy', after the graffiti artist's Barton Hill Valentine artwork popped up right opposite his local chippy. As he watched the circus surrounding it escalate on a daily basis, he wondered what it must be like for the poor sods who lived in the building who’d been inadvertently plunged into this bizarre postmodern chaos. He then got to thinking about what might happen if the people on the other side of the wall of a future piece of Banksy’s work just happened to be doing something slightly less than legal. The whole story fell out of his head and onto the page in just 16 days, and initially it was only a project to keep his mind busy over the early days of lockdown. But so many people asked for a look at the story that Roy chucked an electronic version up on Kindle and it became an unexpected success. The next step was to get the thing in print, and we're glad to say that for Roy the obvious best fit was Earth Island. “I was looking for a proper punk rock publisher rather than anything too corporate, and Earth Island were the only people I ever really considered,” said Roy. “Like myself, the owners have a background in fanzines and have been playing in punk bands for donkey’s years, so it was an obvious collaboration!” Roy has almost finished his next novel, a manic fantasy that sees a Norwegian Black Metal band qualifying for the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moldova. On top of that he’s just about to start his third season writing questions for the TV quiz show Tipping Point, and possibly most foolishly has accepted the drummer’s stool with the newly-reformed Bristol scum punk band Chaotic Dischord. “I like to keep busy,” he said, “but I’d never imagined that I’d still be doing all this nonsense at my advanced age!”
