Richard John Parfitt is a writer, musician and academic. Born and living in south Wales, he spent two years as a teenager not going to school in Toronto, Canada. In the mid 1990s he was founder member of rock group 60ft Dolls, scoring a top 40 album and a number of hits. The group played with well-known bands like Oasis, Dinosaur Jr, and the Sex Pistols. As a songwriter and musician, he has worked for many high-profile artists including Dido, Duffy and McAlmont & Butler. As a writer, he was shortlisted for the New Welsh Review Rheidol Prize. He has also had work published in Planet: The Welsh Internationalist, The Conversation, and Wales Arts Review, The Portland Review and Red Pepper.

His debut novel, Stray Dogs, is selected to our 2023 Bookshelf.