High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Richard: A Novel is a book by English author and journalist Ben Myers about Richey Edwards, the former rhythm guitarist and co-lyricist of the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. Edwards - who suffered from depression, alcoholism, anorexia and self-harm - disappeared on 1 February 1995 at the age of 27 and was declared officially presumed dead on 23 November 2008. Richard was published by Picador and was released on 1 October 2010 (several days after the release of the tenth Manic Street Preachers studio album, Postcards From a Young Man). It is Myers` second novel, and purports to be a fictionalised account of Richey Edwards` life "as he might have told it."