Dan Wagstaffe

Dan Wagstaffe was a writer and a film director before he met me.  I still remember the first time I met him.  I'd put on a film festival in my favourite pub, the Hit or Miss, in Stamford.  Dan came all the way down from York because his film, Bang Up or Pay Back, was being shown.  I remember flashing him a first edition of my own book, die Stunde X, which was in the pub's library.  He seemed impressed.  And I knew, even back then, that we were kindred spirits.

What impressed me about Bang Up or Pay Back wasn't just the subject matter. It was the fact that his submission turned up in an evidence bag from HM Prison Service.  I used to work as a prison officer, so I was immediately intrigued.  Even had the film been shit (which, I hasten to add, it wasn't) I would've put it in the festival.  Yes, I was that shallow.

Dan didn't drink the bottle of wine that every film-maker who attended the festival was promised.  Well, he had to drive home after the event, and to be honest, Dan doesn't drink like me.  But we had a great chat about writing.  A few weeks later, Dan sent me a copy of his book, Honey Rich.  Naturally, I read it.  It entertained me for a few days (as most books do).  That book was written many years ago.  Dan hasn't had a follow-up published yet.  I remember castigating him for this fact on numerous occasions.  I've also had a go at him for not using his massive directing talent in recent years.

You see, Dan is an artist, just like me.  Just like me, he has his tortured moments, as all creative individuals (writers, musicians, film-makers, actors) have from time to time.  But throughout it all, Dan has remained a friend.  Dan is a writer wholly unlike me.  He writes in a different way.  But at the end of the writing process, I think we both produce some pretty good stuff.  The path to producing the product (and I hate calling books a "product" - it makes me sound like some pretentious marketing cunt) is completely different, but after a few months of slaving away, that book is held in the hands of people neither of us know and it's read.  That's the aim of a writer.  Getting your stuff read by people who don't know you.  In fact, I have a few friends who, in the past, have refused to read my work because they know me.  As a cocky, arrogant bastard, I could say that they're missing out.  Anyway, I'm digressing.  This piece is about Dan Wagstaffe.

Dan is younger than me.  Mid-thirties, he has plenty of time to achieve the accolade that every creative person - film-maker or writer - wants to achieve.  To be noticed, to have their work read or watched by a wider audience.  I see myself and him as having a Kafka/Brod relationship, although in our case, both Dan and I are Kafka and Brod - the tortured writer and the good friend.

You can't currently get Dan's last novel, Honey Rich, on Amazon - it's "unavailable" - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Honey-Rich-Daniel-Geoffrey-Wagstaffe/dp/0956107206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384735494&sr=8-1&keywords=honey+rich but it's a good read.  And I'm sure it must be in a bookshop somewhere.  Dan is finally working on a follow up, and he tells me it should be finished in a few months.  I would urge you to read his work.  More than that, I'd urge you to watch his directorial debut, Bang Up or Pay Back (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9bCnWRhcaM).

I guess what I'm trying to do here is encourage Dan to keep on creating.  For too long this man has been in the wilderness.  He is a good friend, that much is probably obvious by what I've said previously, but he is also a massive talent.  Plus, he also managed to squeeze a copy of Putrid Underbelly into Chuck Palahniuk's transgressive grip.

Dan is a friend, a brazen bastard, and a massive talent.