Richard Craze; writer and publisher (and cave guide and blackjack dealer and lecturer in stress management)

[Hyfler/Rosner]

The Times (London)

September 9, 2006, Saturday

Richard Craze, writer and publisher, was born on April 4,
1950. He died of a heart attack on August 9, 2006, aged 56.

Prolific writer and unconventional publisher who specialised
in promoting unknown authors

RICHARD CRAZE was a cave guide, a finance manager, a
blackjack dealer, a lecturer in stress management and a
writer -although, as he pointed out, never all at the same
time -before he broke into publishing.

White Ladder Press, which he established with his wife, Roni
Jay, in 2003, succeeded largely because of his energy and
originality -and his brazen sales techniques which ensured
that high street chains such as Borders, Waterstone's and WH
Smith soon stocked White Ladder books.

Craze had wanted to write from an early age, but his
ambition was not matched by academic aptitude. At 15 he was
advised to leave Sutton County Grammar School in Surrey,
since he had learnt all that he would. His first novel, a
sci-fi adventure, was rejected when he was 16. His studies
in art at Worthing Art College and in Brighton did not last
either, coming to an end after a profitable tuck-shop scam
was discovered.

Craze then became a blackjack dealer, figuring that working
nights would leave him free to write by day. However, he
soon married a fellow croupier, Sally McAlpine, in 1972, and
the young family that ensued took care of his days. Craze
was good at his job, however, and graduated to managing a
casino in Bristol for Sir Reo Stakis.

By the mid-1980s Craze had decided on a change. He talked
his way into a job as finance manager at Bristol Polytechnic
Student Union -later he boasted that he arrived on his first
day with nothing in his briefcase other than sandwiches and
Hodder and Stoughton's Teach Yourself Basic Accounting.
Despite such inauspicious beginnings he managed to turn a
flagging student union into one of the richest in the
country.

In 1988 a compensation payment after a motorbike accident
allowed him to stop work and concentrate on his writing.
However, lack of success and the break-up of his marriage
eventually obliged him to look for work again.

After a stint as a guide at Wookey Hole caves in Somerset,
he tried his hand at running a natural health clinic, and
then became a consultant in stress management. Through this
he met both his future wife, Roni Jay, a writer, and a
literary agent, who encouraged him to write a book on
graphology.

Craze, who so far had written only fiction -novels, TV
plays, film scripts, children's books and so on -jumped at
the chance. Despite knowing nothing about the subject he
hammered out Graphology for Beginners in 13 days. It was
published in 1994 and would be followed by some 60 books, on
subjects ranging from Chinese culture to Tantric sex, from
alternative lifestyles to business.

He and Jay decided that to make a living through writing
they would have to produce a book a month. They kept it up
for almost ten years, despite starting another
family -Craze's enthusiasm for being a father was perhaps a
consequence of having been brought up without one himself.

Eventually the couple felt the need for something new again,
and hit on publishing, deciding to specialise in books that
tackled their subject from a personal viewpoint. Their aim
was to "teach old dogs new tricks", presenting a new angle
on everyday living. They began to publish non-fiction books
on a wide range of topics, and concentrated on promoting
their writers, even though, invariably, they were quite
unknown.

Craze was an inspirational salesman, and White Ladder Press
swiftly gained a reputation in independent publishing for
innovation and boldness.

Roni Jay, their three sons and a daughter and two sons from
his first marriage survive him.