Words: Simon Harper
Photography: Jannica Honey
A former finalist in Channel 4’s stand-up contest So You Think You’re Funny, Rose Heiney, 24, has since decided that the pen is mightier than the mic.
Published earlier in 2008, her darkly comic debut novel The Days of Judy B saw Rose – daughter of broadcasters Libby Purves and Paul Heiney – become firmly ensconced in the literary world that she was first exposed to at an early age.
“I was very lucky to grow up in a house full of books, to be taken to films, to plays, and introduced to good TV programmes,” she begins. “They’re the places that you go when the rest of the world isn’t looking so brilliant. I learned to have a lot of respect for television. A brilliant half-hour sitcom can inform your outlook as much as six miserable weeks spent trying to slog through The Brothers Karamazov.”
Fittingly, much of Rose’s humour comes from exposure to a raft of British sit-coms, name-checking the likes of Hancock’s Half Hour, Drop The Dead Donkey and People Like Us among her favourite touchstones, alongside more recent triumphs such as Peep Show.
“I’m evangelical about the programmes I find funny – if I were braver I would be running down the street thrusting box-sets of Ever Decreasing Circles into the hands of strangers, shouting, ‘Episode three is life-changing!’ and then sprinting off to spread my message.”
Describing her own working habits as “haphazard”, Rose wishes she’d prepared another draft of her novel before it went to print – but she needn’t have worried. Her first offering won over readers and critics, with Victoria Hislop [The Island] lauding it as “one of the funniest, most profound book’s I’ve ever read.”
“It actually got turned down by an awful lot of publishers,” says Oxford graduate Rose. “Looking back, I can see why. It’s obviously a very ‘young’ book, and the draft on submission was by no means ready. I dealt with the rejection through a well-moderated regime of incandescent rage, hysterical sobbing and alcohol abuse. I was very, very lucky that a publisher saw fit to take a punt on it in the end, and that relief was incredible.”
Rose is keen to dabble in other media too, and is in the early stages of developing an online comedy. “It’s a bit of a departure for me,” she confesses. “I’m the kind of person who thinks that computers have eyes and that you can scoop up broadband in a bucket. Trying to explain widgets and platforms to me is like teaching a dog to play poker, but I’m doing my best.”
“There’s so much I’d love to try,” she goes on. “I’d love to write radio comedy, contribute to other people’s shows, and ultimately help create good television. It’s very early days, but if someone opens a door, writing-wise, I will happily peep through it.”
