Paul Carr is, by process of elimination, a writer.
For the first part of what he laughingly calls his ‘career’, he edited various publications and founded numerous businesses with varying degrees of abysmal failure. After getting fired from every job he’d ever had - including at least two where he was his own boss - he realised it was easier to write about other people’s success than to have any of his own.
That realisation lead him to write Bringing Nothing To The Party: True Confessions Of A New Media Whore, the bizarre story of his not-entirely-successful attempt to become a famous Internet billionaire, which was published in 2008 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
For reasons beyond his comprehension, people seemed to like the book, with the Spectator choosing it as one of their Business Reads of 2008. Next thing he knew, Weidenfeld & Nicolson signed him up to write another one, which will be published in 2010.
He also writes a weekly column for the Guardian, losely based around his adventures with technology, called ‘Not Safe For Work‘.
Paul has been described as ‘a latter-day Jonathan Swift’ by the Christian Science Monitor, ‘Hilariously cynical’ by the Observer, ‘Brilliant’ by i-D magazine and ‘capable of inciting violence’ by the Obscene Publications Squad (really). Belle de Jour recently wrote a haiku comparing him unfavourably to Po Bronson.
His drink of choice is dark rum; frequently with Diet Coke, he worked as a magician for four years, he’s a sucker for a heist movie, has both a Blackberry and an iPhone, knows the lyrics to every Barenaked Ladies song and every novelty rap from the early-to-mid 90s - and owns two one pairs of shoes.
He is currently based in San Francisco but divides his time mostly between London, the USA and mainland Europe - which makes him technically homeless.
He is 29-years-old and resolutely NSFW.
More about Paul? You should follow him on Twitter.
Or read his interview with Waterstones.com or this profile by Danuta Kean for Orion.