David Kerby-Kendall

I began writing seriously in 2007, whilst on a break from acting. I had an idea for a play and named it after the first record I ever bought. This was 'Save Your Kisses For Me' (I can still do the dance routine: please don’t hold this against me). I have since had fourteen further plays staged, including adaptations of five of David Walliam's wonderful children's books ('Mr Stink', 'Ratburger', 'Billionaire Boy', 'The Midnight Gang' and 'Gangsta Granny'). I have also adapted other novels for national and international tours, many for Heartbreak Productions, for whom I was the In-House writer from 2009 to 2021. My second independent play, 'The Moon Is Halfway To Heaven', was produced at Jermyn Street Theatre and my third and fourth, '20:40' and 'Gay Pride And No Prejudice', have also been staged in London. My first novel, 'The Rainbow Player', was published in 2017 and my second, 'Diary Of A Diary', in May 2021. 'The Rainbow Player' is the coming-of-age story of a Premiership footballer who discovers that he is gay. I wanted to write a novel about a gay footballer, both to help create discussion about the subject and also to discover the funny, vulnerable human being behind the icon. 'Diary Of A Diary' is the story of three people's experience of depression and a diary that writes its own entries. The novel is also about the life-loving, eternal teenager hidden behind the illness and, as such, the novel has as much humour as it has darkness. I do all of my writing in longhand in cafes. I get far more excited about a cheap art deco notebook than I do about a high-end laptop, probably because I type with the coordination of a newly-born giraffe. I love looking out of the window of a Soho cafe, drinking in the buzz and energy of London and creating a world that is an absolute privilege to share with other people. When I'm not writing, I'm either acting or running the tours of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In my spare time (whatever THAT is) I love music (Meat Loaf to Mozart), tennis (playing and watching), rugby and football (just watching; I'm hopeless at football and my knees refuse to play rugby now), poetry, Cornwall, reading, fitness training, meditating, meeting friends for coffee and cake and talking nonsense after a glass and a half of cheap wine. My website is www.davidkerbykendall.com.