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