Julian Ruck

Julian Ruck (born 1956) is a British author. He is also known as a regional newspaper columnist,Freedom of Information campaigner and critic of Welsh literary funding.
Biography
Ruck was born in Swansea, South Wales, in 1956. His twin brother, an asthmatic, died in 1963, aged seven. The son of a solicitor who ran his own family practice, Ruck attended Craig y Nos and St Michael's independent schools, before obtaining a degree in law and training as a lawyer in London. Having completed his articles of clerkship and after a period travelling in Denmark and Israel, Ruck was briefly a law lecturer in the UK, which included lecturing at West Suffolk College, before managing Legal Services Contracts at Citizens Advice Bureaux in some of the most deprived areas of the Black Country. He retired from the legal profession in 2003.
Literary output
As of 2012, Ruck has written four novels. He self-published his first, Ragged Cliffs, through ISIS Publishing in 2006. It tells the story of Lise Jacobson, who leaves her native Denmark in 1945 following a brutal retribution for having a relationship with a Nazi soldier. She moves to the Gower Peninsula and marries into the Treharne family, owners of the titular stately home 'Ragged Cliffs'. The novel, which Ruck had first drafted in 1988 while still working in the legal profession, was supported by a book signing tour of Wales. Following the success of Ragged Cliffs Ruck was signed up with top London literary agents Andrew Nurnberg.
A follow-up to Ragged Cliffs, titled Inheritance Lost, was self-published, again through ISIS, in 2008. It continued the family saga of the Treharnes, focussing more on Kristian Treharne, Lise's son.
In 2010, Ruck released his third novel, An Equal Judge. The novel, focussing on a plot to kill Kristian's sister Charlotte Treharne, was the first title published by new imprint Dinefwr, hitherto a Carmarthenshire-based printer. Dinefwr launched a UK-wide advertising and promotional campaign and also obtained the rights to, and subsequently reprinted, the first two books in the Treharne Trilogy. In March 2011, Ruck began a new book signing tour in England, visiting major cities including Bristol, Birmingham, Oxford and London.
Ruck's latest novel, The Bent Brief, was released by Dinefwr in September 2012.
Literary style
Ruck's novels do not fall into any one genre but encompass romance, family saga, thriller and suspense. They are all marked by dramatic plot twists and are punctuated throughout with the author's dry humour.
Local newspaper column
As of November 2012, Ruck has been a weekly columnist for the Llanelli Star.
Kidwell-e Festival
In 2012, Ruck organised the Kidwell-e Festival, the UK's first literary event to recognise e-authors. It was held on the weekend of 28-9 July 2012, at Ffos Las Racecourse in Trimsaran, near Kidwelly.
According to trade magazine The Bookseller, between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors were expected, but Ruck stated that he attracted online criticism after fewer than 100 people attended. Ruck claimed at the time that the festival would return in 2013. Originally planned to be a series of prizes amounting to £16,000, a £10,000 prize, believed to be the largest of its kind in the world, was awarded at the Kidwell-e Festival. The winner was Zelda Rhiando for her self-published novel, Caposcripti.
Criticism of Welsh literary funding
In 2012, Ruck attacked taxpayer-funding for writers in Wales, calling for the money to be diverted instead to health and education budgets. He claimed that £25 million of public money had been paid to Welsh authors and publishing houses through Literature Wales (£21.8 million) and the Welsh Books Council (£3.85 million) since 2008. Some UK national newspapers went on to carry the story in early 2013, and the Daily Mail printed Ruck's claim that the money paid for Welsh books that only sold 'a handful of copies'.
In response to Ruck's arguments, a spokesperson for the Welsh Government was quoted as saying that 'detailed monitoring arrangements' were in place to ensure funding was spent appropriately, and added that book sales through the Welsh Books Council distribution centre had seen an increase in the previous financial year. An earlier version of the article had cast doubt on Ruck's figures for Welsh book sales, which was later retracted following clarification that they derived from the industry standard Nielsen BookScan, as opposed to the data provided by Lewis' Welsh publisher's, Seren Books. Upon Ruck's request, Lewis' comment 'So much for the quality of Ruck's information' was removed by the Guardian.
In February 2013, it was reported that at Ruck's request, Dyfed-Powys Police were investigating online harassment and threats against him. At the time, Ruck claimed that this was in response to his exposing the cost to tax-payers of funding Welsh literary grants.
Bibliography
*Ragged Cliffs (2006)
*Inheritance Lost (2008)
*An Equal Judge (2010)
*The Bent Brief (2012)

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu