Myers attended his first concert in Durham in March 1990, when he was fourteen. It led to him forming the punk rock band Sour Face the next year.[4] The band quickly became involved in the Durham hardcore punk scene. Despite being one of the few bands in the scene that was not straight edge, Sour Face became the mascots, with their third performance seeing them open for NOFX. Voorhees' first performance was opening for Sour Face in September 1991.[5]
As a teenager Myers began writing for British weekly Melody Maker.[6] In 1997 he became their staff writer while residing in the Oval Mansions squat for several years. In 2011 he published an article, about his brief time as an intern at News of the World.[6] He has spoken about failing English Literature at A-level and being rejected by "more than a hundred" universities before being accepted by the University of Bedfordshire (formerly Luton University).[7]
Myers' books span literary fiction, nature/landscape writing, crime, historical fiction and poetry. He has been translated into eight languages. He has published several poetry collections and written a number of music biographies which have been widely translated. He is a founding member of the Brutalists, a literary collective including authors Adelle Stripe and Tony O'Neill. His second novel, Richard: A Novel, was a fictionalized account of the life of musician Richey Edwards. It was published by Picador in October 2010, and polarised critical opinion.
Pig Iron (2012) was set in the traveller/gypsy community of the northeast of England and was the first to be published under his full name Benjamin Myers. Published by Bluemoose Books, it won the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize[8] and was longlisted for 3:AM Magazine's 'Novels of the Year'[9] and runner-up in The Guardian's 'Not The Booker Prize',[10] in the same year.
Myers' novel The Gallows Pole (2017), based on the true story of the Cragg Vale Coiners, received a Roger Deakin Award and won the 2018 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.[11] As part of the prize, both author and book title appeared as the official Royal Mail franking stamp for a week on an estimated 60 million pieces of mail. It was released by Third Man Books, part of Third Man Records in the US and Canada.[12] In 2021 the BBC announced an adaptation of the novel by director Shane Meadows.[13] It was first broadcast on BBC2 on 31 May 2023.[14][15]
His novel The Offing (2019) featured on Radio 4's Book At Bedtime, was a Radio 2 Book Club choice and was chosen as a book of the year in The Times. The audiobook was narrated by actor Ralph Ineson. A stage version of The Offing was produced in Scarborough and Newcastle in 2021,[16] and it was announced in 2023 that a film would be produced of the novel starring Helena Bonham Carter and directed by Jessica Hobbs.[17]
Cuddy, his eighth novel, combines poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts of the story and legacy of St. Cuthbert and his connection to Durham Cathedral.[20][21]
Rare Singles, his most recent novel, is set across a Northern Soul weekender in Scarborough and is currently in development as a film.[22]
In 2014 Myers won the Society of Authors Tom-Gallon Trust Award[24] for his short story, 'The Folk Song Singer'. He was runner-up in the same prize in 2018 for his story 'A Thousand Acres Of English Soil'. His poem 'The Path To Pendle Hill' was selected by New Statesman as one of its Poems Of The Year 2015[25] and work from the same collection were read by Myers on BBC1 programme Countryfile.
^Myers, Benjamin (2004). John Lydon : PiL, Pistols and anti-celebrity. London: Independent Music. ISBN0-9539942-7-9. OCLC56640176.
^Myers, Benjamin (2005). Green Day : American idiots & the new punk explosion. Church Stretton: Independent Music Press. ISBN0-9539942-9-5. OCLC64553821.
^Myers, Benjamin (2006). System of a Down : right here in Hollywood. Church Stretton: Independent Music. ISBN978-0-9549704-6-8. OCLC63136435.
