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An Edinburgh novel described as a ‘love letter to Portobello ‘ has been praised by famous faces ahead of its release.
Author Kevan Christie is releasing his book, To Be Frank, on September 28. It follows Frank, a newspaper columnist in his ’50s who is (in Kevan’s words) a cantankerous old git.
After penning a column while hungover and bitter, Frank ends up catapulted into stardom while dealing while the death of his brother, the return of his daughter, and his ‘football hooligan arch-enemy’. Speaking to Edinburgh Live , Kevan said the debut novel is a crime comedy that delves into aging, parenthood and addiction.
Some stars of the silver screen have already praised the novel. Star of Department Q, Mark Bonnar – who went to Leith Academy with Kevan – said: “Christie’s writing has everything I love in a book – taut, funny, fast paced with a dark underbelly.
“He winds the narrative around beautifully hewn characters and a lesser seen but most welcome central father/ daughter relationship. I can’t believe me and Kev had the same English teacher.”
Jamie Sives, who played Jake McCall in Guilt, added: “It begins here. The start of a glittering literary career.”
Speaking to us ahead of the launch of his book, Kevan, 56, described To Be Frank. He said: “It’s a comedy crime, that’s a love letter to Portobello and comments on the state of the current media and how the impact of gentrification on the seaside town. Also, it’s about the aging process and getting trapped in nostalgia.
“Frank, the central character, is nostalgic for the Portobello of his youth, but he’s looking at that through rose-tinted spectacles .He gets annoyed about how it’s gentrified, how the coffees dear, he’s looking for is he’s searching for peace and quiet.
“Every cafe he goes into there’s four dogs and screaming babies. He’s cantankerous old git really. He feels out of place at his work where millennials rule the roost, and decides to pen a column when he’s hungover.
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“He calls for dogs and babies to banned from cafes, not giving it too much thought. He thinks that that’s going to get him the sack possibly, or lead to him being cancelled, but it goes the other way.
“And it kind of propels him to stardom, so he’s now under pressure to write more and more bizarre columns. He’s also mourning the loss of his brother who was gay and died at an incident at the old open air pool.
“There’s familial tension as well, his daughter comes back and he regrets being a poor parent to her. It’s really a comedy with criminals in it, but underneath the surface, if you scratch at it a little bit, it deals with aging, parenthood, addiction.”
Kevan has a strong connection to Portobello, and is perhaps nostalgic for the old days – much like his lead character. He told us: “I wanted to write about Portobello because it was a place where my granny had a guest house and it’s a place that means a lot to me. My granny stayed on Regent Street, and you know so so we played in the amusements and the pool.
“It hasn’t really been written about in any great detail before, you know, it tends to the Edinburgh stories tends to concentrate around about Leith or the Old Town kind of thing. When I was sending it to publishers there was chat of this statistic where 75 per cent of people that read books are college educated younger women. I’m like, right, I want the other 25 per cent.”
To Be Frank delves into the gentrification of Portobello, while also discussing changes in media. Kevan, a former journalist, spoke to us about the differences between creative writing and reporting.
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“Well when you’re creating with the journalism, the story is there for you, the characters are there, you’re reporting on that,” He reflected.
“With fiction you’re creating it from scratch, and you’ve got more time. There’s an immediacy to journalism, you’ve got deadlines. With Frank, he’s not your typical old school journalist that thinks everything was better back in the day.
“He doesn’t hate the player, he hates the game and he doesn’t blame younger journalists.”
While To Be Frank is yet to be released, Kevan was pleased to get high praise from some former classmates – and famous faces. He said: “Mark Bonner was a school friend. I was in the same class as Mark Bonner at Leith Academy, and Jamie Sives has been my best friend for over 40 years.
“They very kindly provided those comments, although they’re wee bit cheeky. Mark said he can’t believe he had the same English teacher as me – but they were very generous with their comments.
“They’re brilliant. I can’t praise them enough. Everybody’s really proud of what they’ve achieved, and it’s great that they’re working together on Guilt and Department Q.”
You can find out more about To Be Frank on The Book Guild here.
