Richard Beard - Author

Acts of the Assassins

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE. A charismatic cult leader is dead. One by one his followers are being assassinated. Enter Gallio. Gallio does counter-insurgency. But the theft of a body he's supposed to be guarding ruins his career. Years later, the file is reopened when a second body appears. Gallio is called back by headquarters and ordered to track down everyone involved the first time round. The only problem is they keep dying, in ever more grotesque and violent ways. How can Gallio stay ahead of the game when the game keeps changing?

Acts of the Assassins

Gallio does counter-insurgency. But the theft of a body he's supposed to be guarding ruins his career. Bizarre rumours of the walking dead are swirling, there is panic in the air, and it's his job to straighten out the conspiracy. He blows the case. Years later, the file is reopened when a second body appears. Gallio is called back by headquarters and ordered to track down everyone involved the first time round. The only problem is they keep dying, in ever more grotesque and violent ways. How can Gallio stay ahead of the game when the game keeps changing? Acts of the Assassins is about one man's struggle to confront forces beyond his understanding. And about how lonely a turbulent world can be.

Hinterland Summer 2019

The Day That Went Missing

*WINNER OF THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE 2018* My younger brother's name is Nicholas Beard. He was nine years old, and I was with him in the water when he drowned. Life changes in an instant. On a family holiday in Cornwall in 1978, Richard and Nicholas are in the sea, jumping the waves. Suddenly and inexplicably Nicholas is out of his depth and then, shockingly, so is Richard. Only one of the brothers returns to the shore. Richard does not attend Nicholas's funeral and afterwards the family return to Cornwall to continue the holiday. Soon they stop speaking of that day at the beach altogether. Years later, haunted by grief, Richard sets out to piece together the story. Who was Nicholas? What really happened that day? And why did the family never speak of it again? SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2018 SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE 2018 `This captivating book, both heart-rending and jaw-dropping, unfolds like a detective story' Daily Mail `A memoir of real truth and heartbreaking emotional heft' Sunday Times

Apostle Killer

A wildly inventive, darkly suspenseful novel that pits Christ's ';Passion as police procedural' (The Guardian).Set in a hazy Middle East that seems at once ancient and modern,The Apostle Killerfeatures Gallio, an aging, hardboiled investigator who has one last chance to save his career: He's got to prove Christ's resurrection was a hoax.To uncover the conspiracy behind the so-called resurrection, Gallio figures all he needs is for oneof the apostles to crack. The only problem is that one by one, the apostles keep dyingand in ever more grotesque waysjust before Gallio gets to them.Racing to save both his case and the witnesses he needs to solve it, Gallio begins to suspect he's become the unwitting pawn in the plot to kill the apostles . . . but who's behind it? And to what end? As Gallio realizes even his own superiors are not to be trusted,The Apostle Killertransforms from a dazzling literary experiment into a moving, haunting work of art.

Acts of the Assassins

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE. A charismatic cult leader is dead. One by one his followers are being assassinated. Enter Gallio. Gallio does counter-insurgency. But the theft of a body he's supposed to be guarding ruins his career. Years later, the file is reopened when a second body appears. Gallio is called back by headquarters and ordered to track down everyone involved the first time round. The only problem is they keep dying, in ever more grotesque and violent ways. How can Gallio stay ahead of the game when the game keeps changing?

Lazarus Is Dead

What would you do, given the second chance of a lifetime? Like most men in their thirties, Lazarus has plans that don't involve dying. He's busy. Life is good. But he can't cheat destiny. Lazarus dies. Jesus weeps. Lazarus returns to life. This part we all know. But as Lazarus is about to find out, returning from the dead isn't easy. He thinks he wants a second chance at life, but what will he do when he gets it?

Lazarus Is Dead

Like most men in their early thirties, Lazarus has plans that don't involve dying. He is busy organising his sisters, his business and his women. Life is mostly good, until far away in Galilee, without warning, his childhood best friend turns water into wine. Immediately, Lazarus falls ill. And with each subsequent miracle his health deteriorates: a nasty cough blooms into an alarming panorama of afflictions. His sisters think Jesus can help, but given the history of their friendship Lazarus disagrees. What he is sure of is that he'll try everything in his power to make himself well. Except for calling on Jesus. Lazarus dies. Jesus weeps. This part we all know. But as Lazarus is about to find out, returning from the dead isn't easy. You think you want a second chance at life, but what do you do when you get it? Lazarus has his own story, he is his own man, and he is determined to avoid the mistakes he made the first time round. A thrillingly inventive, genre-bending novel, Lazarus is Dead is the definitive account of the life, death and life of Lazarus, as never told before.

Gifts From The Void

Becoming Drusilla One Life, Two Friends, Three Genders

`A brave and intelligent book' Daily Telegraph An unforgettable memoir about gender, journeys and enduring friendship For years Richard Beard would take spontaneous holidays with his motor-cycling friend Drew. They would spend a few days walking, camping, cycling, canoeing - outdoor, manly fun - before returning to everyday life: wives, children, jobs. Richard was writing novels. Drew was working in the engine-room of cross-channel passenger ferries. Then one year Drew phoned to announce a complication: he was planning to transition and begin living as a woman. This is the story of how Drew became Dru, of what happened to their friendship, and their adventures in wildest Wales the first time they went camping as man and woman. It is warm, sad, funny; an intimate tale of shared humanity.

Damascus

A love story, in which all the events, people and places are taken from the contents of the The Times of 1st November, 1993. 'It's the last day of the holidays and Spencer Kelly (12) wants to hold Hazel Burns (12) by the hand. This is the meaning of life. He wants to sit beside her on a sand dune and hold her hand and then kiss her. Just kissing, in a nice way, on her cheek perhaps and then a little bit at the top of her arms...If he can kiss her this once then he'll always have kissed her, and everything which follows will be different. It's to be the one moment which instantly changes everything.'

X20 A Novel of [Not] Smoking

Gregory Simpson is, after years of being paid to smoke a packet a day for research purposes, trying to give up. To keep his hands busy he decides to write a journal.

Dry Bones

Jay Mason is experiencing a crisis of faith. Disillusioned with his calling as a Deacon in the Anglican Church of Geneva, and estranged from his pregnant girlfriend, he's about to fall into the murky world of celebrity grave-robbing. His church has been bought by the shadowy antiquities dealer Joseph Moholy, who arrives to claim its most interesting asset: the toe bone of Thomas Becket. Moholy has a large collection of dubiously acquired relics and is keen to add to his collection. Jay, he decides, is the man to assist him. Jay finds that grave-robbing can be both lucrative and thrilling, however morally troubling for a man of God, and in Switzerland's cemeteries he finds a rich cast to work on: James Joyce, Richard Burton, John Calvin and Charlie Chaplin all receive his midnight attentions. But Moholy is a ruthless man whose ambitions are perilously high, and as Jay assists him in his search for the holy grail of relics, he puts himself and his loved ones in serious danger.

Muddied Oafs The Soul of Rugby

There is Rugby Union: the fast, compelling, TV-friendly combat sport in which sponsored gladiators are sold on their ability to crash into each other at top speed, and sometimes even to avoid each other and score. And then there's rugger. Rugger was once the serious version of rugby, more than a mere game, a fierce contact-sport developed in Victorian public schools to forge manly and unshakeable character. For a hundred years boys played rugger and made themselves into men. They also drank too much beer and took their trousers down in public. Richard Beard sets out to examine this contradiction by revisiting his seven former rugby clubs in four different countries. He meets Booker prize-winning authors and former England hookers, explores rugby's rivalry with soccer, its surprising attraction for nonconformists, and its unlikely role in organised crime. All while trying to get himself a game. This is Beard's quest into his rugby-playing past, where he's lived the sport in many of its varied forms. By the end of his wayward journey, he almost qualifies to judge whether rugger has achieved what the Victorians always intended, and made him a better man.

The Cartoonist

By day Daniel Travers draws cartoon chickens and by night he is confused by Daphne. Her instinct for rebellion leads them to Yurayama theme-park to sabotage the character-acts. All that stands in their way is public opinion, Michael Miller, the melancholic park-supervisor, and a bang on the head.

X20: A Novel of (Not) Smoking

Gregory Simpson is thirty and trying to quit, keeping ten fingers glued to a keyboard in order to fight their incessant ache to hold a burning paper tube filled with dead leaves. In twenty entries in twenty days for twenty to a packone word for each cigarette inhaled over the course of ten smoke-filled yearshe examines his life in tense, withdrawal-induced fits and starts: the friendships cemented and defined by nicotine; the intimate relationships crushed or stifled; the acrid, immoral and rebellious satisfactions. But with strength of purpose and improved concentration comes the sobering revelation that his habit is more political than personal. Even if he kicks, Gregory realizes, he's still living in a tobacco world.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fictionnovels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.Gregory Simpson is thirty and trying to quit, keeping ten fingers glued to a keyboard in order to fight their incessant ache to hold a burning paper tube filled with dead leaves. In twenty entries in twenty days for twenty to a packone word for each cigarette inhaled over the course of ten smoke-filled yearshe examines his life in tense, withdrawal-induced fits and starts: the friendships cemented and defined by nicotine; the intimate relationships crushed or stifled; the acrid, immoral and rebellious satisfactions. But with strength of purpose and improved concentration comes the sobering revelation that his habit is more political than personal. Even if he kicks, Gregory realizes, he's still living in a tobacco world.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fictionnovels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.