Now, more than 15 years after Edwards' disappearance, a new novel purports to unlock the secrets of his final days. The book, Richard, was written by Ben Ayers, and has sparked a bit of controversy. Preachers bassist Nicky Wire told the Guardian, "I found it too upsetting to read the whole thing. The notion that somebody thinks they knew who he was… I mean, I thought I knew Richey, but maybe I didn't."

Ayers has responded to his growing number of critics by citing literary precedent: "I completely respect and understand how upsetting a book about a real person can be, though the concept rather than the content is perhaps the controversial aspect of Richard. But it is not setting any literary precedents. Half of Shakespeare's output took real people as starting points, and then dramatized their lives. Writers such as Norman Mailer or Truman Capote have done it in the true crime genre, so have hundreds of filmmakers. Mailer can't have possibly known what was going on in Gary Gilmore's head, but that didn't make The Executioner's Song any less valid. - more on this story

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