Oxford student Richard Mason's first novel, The Drowning People, went to number eight on the bestseller list when it was launched a few weeks ago, writes Katherie MacAlister.

It had sold 100,000 copies and is being translated into 21 languages. When I met the 21-year-old he may have been hung over from a party, but he looked every inch the man with the literary world at his feet.

Dressed in a smart dark suit, he ordered a large coffee and an orange juice before he could speak. The drinking the night before had done little to spoil his charm or good looks. "I got the suit when I did the shoot for American Vogue, and they let me keep it afterwards," he said incredulously.

He landed an $800,000 publishers' advance for his novel and is now being shadowed for a month for a CNN documentary.

This side of the Atlantic, his celebrity status is rising just as meteorically.

Already doing the British TV circuit, such is the publicity he has constantly to deal with, he has had to take a year off from his English degree at New College to finish his second book. And he certainly hasn't got time for a girlfriend at the moment. One would imagine that money and success would go to the head of one so young, but not at all.

He doesn't deny that he is enjoying the parties, TV shows and recognition but he takes it all with a pinch of salt and is well aware of the superficiality of the whole scene.

So whenever possible, he takes his friends with him to enjoy the ride.

He is about to dash back to the USA for a launch party over there and was taking some University friends with him. "They get cheap flights and come, too. It's the same price for two as it is for one in a hotel room, so I try to make sure they benefit from all this as well," he said. The Oxford launch party was also mainly for their benefit - and 150 people crowded into the Ashmolean Museum Cafe on Tuesday to toast Richard's success.

"You always worry you'll be surrounded by canapes and champagne and that no-one will show, but luckily they did," he said.

His friends then held their own private party for him afterwards, so it was a wonder he turned up for the interview at all. He said: "Yes, life is pretty hectic at the moment. I haven't had much time to myself.

"Of course I love all the parties but I also love my own space so it'll be nice to get back to Paris."

That's where he lives now. He finds it holds fewer distractions and he can blend easily into the background, something that is becoming impossible elsewhere.

He said: "I was sitting on the sofa next to Blondie for a European TV chat show this week and I had to keep pinching myself." It is this unaffectedness that makes him so likeable.

He attributes his level-headedness to his family, who keep his feet firmly on the ground. Raised in South Africa, the youngest of three children, his parents moved to London in the 1980s.

After an Eton education, Richard took a year off and settled down to write in Prague.

He said: "It was a wonderfully Bohemian and decadent place to be, with lots of aspiring artists and writers, very like Paris in the 1930s I always imagined."

To make ends meet he played the piano in a jazz club every night and afterwards went back to his lodgings to write the novel. He said: "I had to be very disciplined and it was all a bit nocturnal, but I had to see if I could do it.

"It was something I had always wanted to do."

The book is about a man reflecting on his life, having just killed his wife of 45 years. His mother was the first person Richard showed his completed book to and she suggested that he try to get it published.

"She is a harsh critic and reads a lot of books, so I knew I was on the way when she said that."

Penguin turned him down, but then he got himself an agent and the world suddenly became his oyster. His initial advance for two books over here was £110,000.

His final draft was finished in the Christmas holidays of his first year at Oxford and since then he has been on a roller coaster. His second book is well on the way to completion and, although he hasn't named it yet, is set in Oxford. He said: "I didn't tell anyone when I first arrived at university, but they soon found out."

And his biggest thrill? "When someone comes up and says they couldn't put my book down.

*The Drowning People, published by Michael Joseph, is priced £10 and available from all good bookshops.

Story date: Friday 07 May

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