Author and journalist Ben Myers has written a novel based around the life of Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards who disappeared in 1995, never to be seen again.
The author of 'The Book Of F**k' and biographies of Music, Green Day, Johnny Rotten and The Clash told NME that the book, entitled 'Richard', is a work of fiction based around known facts about Edwards' life.
"The book is set against the backdrop of a Tory-run Britain in the 1980s and early 1990s. During those final pre-Britpop years before alternative music turned into something else.
"It takes in the rise of the pre-arena filling Manic Street Preachers, as well as exploring topics such as depression, aspiration, rehabilitation, camaraderie, Welsh identity, sub-zero graffiti-strewn dressing rooms and the sheer absurdity of a monstrous music business that has been known to eat its young.
"A lot has been written about Richey Edwards, but I thought a fictional setting would be a better medium to explore his personality, especially because he was a particularly literate person who injected a wealth of literary influences into a fairly staid British rock scene that was lacking any true iconoclastic voices at the time.
"The book is a fact-based work of fiction so one thing Richard doesn't do is offer a hypothesis or explanation. It asks more questions than it provides answers and therefore is merely a version of a truth – as opposed to the truth."
Though family and friends have held onto hope that Richey might be alive for many years, he was finally declared "presumed dead" in 2008. Following this, the Manics finally recorded songs he had written before his disappearance, and released them on their last album 'Journal for Plague Lovers'. The band are set to follow this album with their tenth record 'Postcards from A Young Man', which is due for release in September.