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Neil Forsyth

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Neil Forsyth (born 1978 Dundee, Scotland) is a Scottish journalist, writer and author best known for creating the character of Bob Servant.

Early life

Forsyth grew up in Dundee where he attended the High School of Dundee[1] and his first writing appeared in a Dundee United fanzine.[2] He graduated from Edinburgh University[3] and held several jobs including as a nightclub promoter[1] before working as a freelance journalist.[2] He is also a graduate of the New York Film Academy.[4]

Other People's Money

Forsyth's first book Other People's Money told the true story of the Scottish fraudster Elliot Castro. Forsyth was living in Scotland and writing for men's magazines when he read about Castro's fraud conviction in a newspaper.[5] He wrote to Castro in prison and gained his permission to write the biography.[5] At publication Other People's Money received a large amount of coverage and while the book was well received,[1] some newspapers questioned the book's moral purpose. "They thought it was wrong that we should profit from Elliot's crimes," Forsyth said in an interview,[1] "But that's always something I protested against quite vigorously. Elliot was caught, and sentenced, and paid for his crimes." The film rights to Other People's Money were purchased by the producers of The Last King of Scotland.[6]

Bob Servant

Bob Servant is a fictional comic character created initially by Forsyth in his second book, Delete This at Your Peril, a collection of email exchanges between the character and several Internet spammers. It was released in the UK in 2007 and the US in 2008. The email exchanges in the book are genuine exchanges[3] between Bob Servant and a series of Internet spammers, largely from Africa[7] and Russia. They are characterised by Servant's increasingly surreal contributions and growing frustration on the part of the spammers. Servant talks to the spammers about his life in Broughty Ferry, a suburb of Dundee which is also the hometown of Forsyth. Forsyth has described the emails as a "slightly strange hobby".[3] On publication the character of Bob Servant was compared to that of John Shuttleworth[8] and a number of reviewers drew comparison to Henry Root, the creation of Willie Donaldson. In 2009 Irvine Welsh selected the then little-known Delete This at Your Peril as his choice in an Esquire Magazine poll for the Funniest Books Ever and along with support from a number of bands including Snow Patrol and Belle and Sebastian,[9] this created a word of mouth campaign that attracted the attention of the BBC.[9]

In 2010 BBC Radio Scotland transmitted The Bob Servant Emails, an adaptation written by Forsyth that starred Brian Cox as Bob Servant and Felix Dexter, Laura Solon, Sanjeev Kohli and Lewis Macleod,[9] as Internet spammers.[10] In January 2011, the series was re-broadcast nationwide on BBC Radio 4.[11] Forsyth attracted Cox to the project after meeting a friend of the Dundonian actor in a pub in New York.[1][12]

In interviews Cox compared Bob Servant to the Dundonian poet William McGonagall[4] and said "We've had Billy Connolly and Lex McLean's Glasgow stories and traditions, but now we've got this Dundee creature".[12] Forsyth has noted McGonagall as an influence for the character along with Harry Flashman, the anti-hero of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels.[4] In November 2010 Forsyth published Servant's autobiography Bob Servant – Hero of Dundee.[5]

Bob Servant made the leap to television in early 2013 as the independent candidate for Broughty Ferry in the cult BBC Four comedy Bob Servant Independent which added Jonathan Watson and Rufus Jones to the existing radio cast.[13]

Let Them Come Through

After watching a medium perform in Edinburgh Forsyth wrote the novel Let Them Come Through.[14] Forsyth has said he saw in the medium similar behaviour to methods used by Elliot Castro. He researched the psychic world by attending live shows[15] and speaking to experts including James Randi.[16] Let Them Come Through was published in the UK in 2009 and the US in 2010 and was praised for Forsyth's dark humour.[15][17]

Political life

Forsyth is the current President of the national Football Association of the Principality of Sealand. He was appointed by Michael Bates, The Prince Regent of Sealand, on 23 December 2009.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "A New Radio Home For Uncivil Bob Servant". The Dundee Courier. 26 October 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Neil Forsyth Interview". Write Words. 11 September 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  3. ^ a b c Macgregor, Fiona (28 September 2007). "The Spam Busters". Edinburgh: The Scotsman. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  4. ^ a b c "Brian Cox To Play Dundonian 'Man of the People'". The Dundee Courier. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  5. ^ a b c Forsyth, Neil (23 October 2010). "Book Previews". Edinburgh: The Scotsman. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  6. ^ "Conman to Make £100,000 From Movie".
  7. ^ "How One Man Beat The Internet Scammers". The Daily Record. 8 January 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  8. ^ "Delete This at Your Peril". Book Bag. 8 January 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  9. ^ a b c "How A Scottish Author Scammed The Email Spammers To Write A Bestselling Book". The Daily Record. 29 October 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  10. ^ The Bob Servant Emails – BBC Radio Scotland
  11. ^ "The Bob Servant Emails – BBC Radio 4". Archived from the original on 2 April 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ a b "Brian Cox Makes The Shift From Hollywood Movies To Scottish Radio". The Herald. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  13. ^ "BBC Bob Servant Independent". Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  14. ^ "Book Previews". The Scotsman. 23 October 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  15. ^ a b "Neil Forsyth Interview". Aesthetica Magazine. 1 August 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  16. ^ "Psychics Next Target For Neil Forsyth". The Dundee Courier. 6 July 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  17. ^ "Let Them Come Through by Neil Forsyth". Bookbag. 1 August 2009. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  18. ^ "Principality of Sealand to Have National Football Team". PR Log. 23 December 2009. Retrieved 12 June 2010.

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