VJ Books presents Robyn Young!

"I was born in Oxford in September 1975, the only child of a civil engineer father and an artist and folk singer mother. My father taught me to read when I was three, for which I continue to be enormously grateful. My mother taught me to find treasure in poetry and self-expression in image, word and song. They, like all good parents, still keep my clay and wood monstrosities from second-year art class and my “oh, God, my world is ending” teenage poems in pride of place."

"My own discovery of the magic of storytelling came first through my grandfather. Later, when my family moved to a fishing village in Devon, I was fortunate enough to have a fantastic English teacher at school. It was here that I started writing poetry, then stories, then articles for the school newspaper."

"At twenty-two, worn down by the late nights and low wages of the entertainment business, I decided I needed a career. I applied for about twenty grown-up sounding jobs and got one, in a building society, initially working the tills, then offering savings and investment advice to customers. My family and friends were shocked. I had a nametag and a suit, and even stranger, maths was without doubt my least favourite thing in the entire world. I thought long-term, however, and took all the necessary steps to get me on the way to becoming a financial consultant. But something was wrong. Several months in, I started writing a novel. It was to be the first of a fantasy series. I wrote constantly, furiously: first thing in the morning, on a pad in the office lunchroom, at night, every weekend. After six months I had a three-hundred-and fifty-thousand word novel (almost twice the size of Brethren). I think this creative outpouring, vomiting it felt like, was due to the fact that work was so uncreative."

"I live and write in Brighton full-time. I sing in the shower, still write bad poetry, avoid maths, still drink too much beer, love old folk songs and although being a novelist most definitely isn’t a proper job, or at least a normal one, I wouldn’t do anything else given the choice.

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