First time novelist Bob overcame self-sabotage to turn schoolboy fantasy into reality

AT first glance Torquay writer Bob Fairbrother might seem the quiet, contemplative type - more likely to be found sketching notes in a café than commanding attention in the spotlight.

- by LEWIS CLARKE

But peel back a layer and you'll find a man with a piercing eye for the disquieting edges of modern life, and a voice ready to challenge, provoke and, above all, tell a gripping story.

His debut novel, Project Deadhead, is a dystopian crime thriller set in a crumbling Britain. But long before he became an author, Fairbrother was simply a boy with an appetite for stories.

"At primary school, a friend and I would regularly, almost competitively, raid the bookshelves," he recalls. It was an early love affair with words that later blossomed thanks to a pivotal secondary school teacher and an unexpected poetry win. But, as he candidly admits, the road to authorship wasn’t always straightforward.

"I've always written stuff, but I would write, destroy and repeat," he says. "Self-sabotage is cunning."

That cycle of creation and erasure began to shift when he joined an online flash fiction group.

Weekly challenges taught him not only how to finish a story but also how to take feedback - two essential skills that would become the foundation of his writing life. It wasn’t a single lightning-bolt moment that told Fairbother he wanted to be a writer, but a collection of them. Re-reading modern classics like Fatherland, Child 44 and 1984 stirred something in him.

"I thought, I'd love to write something like those," he says.

Outside of writing, Fairbrother leads an energetic life. He lives near Torquay with his partner Janet, mentors and coaches others, and somehow finds time for trail running, skiing, French lessons, and even the occasional Subuteo match. Creativity, it seems, flourishes when life is full.