The third novel by Frome author Keith Stuart has been selected as one of six new works to be featured in the second series of Between the Covers, BBC2's popular book review programme, presented by Sara Cox. Keith was interviewed by the BBC in Frome this week.

You may recognise him from his time scribing his latest book; as before coronavirus lockdowns he would often be at the River House café, putting his pen to work at Coffee #1 and, when it was open, writing in Frome's library.

Even as his third book garners another set of excellent reviews, including five stars, he is already at work on his forth, but this time writing from home.

Keith is modest about his writing talents, but all of his books have been highly praised, with his debut, A Boy Made of Blocks selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

" But it came at the right moment. " Keith insists. " I had no idea it would be so popular, and I wasn't even sure it was worth the price of writing. But it seemed that there was something magical happening, and a hunger from readers who wanted something different."

So many writers struggle to find an agent but for Keith it was the other way around, and he was approached by a publisher. An editor from Little Brown publishing read a moving article Keith had written for the Guardian about how Minecraft had helped him bond with his son who has autism.

The editor approached Keith to see if he would consider writing a novel about a father and son based on this article which became 'A Boy made of Blocks' and would end up selling over 200,000 copies and being translated into 24 languages.

Keith who previously wrote for Video Game Magazine, still jokes that he owes his success to the game. " It helped that Minecraft had just over 100 million users," he laughs. " But I am also aware of my good fortune, I know people who have rejection after rejection, time and time again and never get a book deal. The struggle is so distressing and writers put their heart and soul into their work and still get nowhere. "

Forty nine year old Keith went on to write a second book Days of Wonder (which may be a little bit about Frome ... shh), has now just published his third, a departure in tone once again.

It has a supernatural theme, but also involved a huge weight of historical research, and has left him in awe of the likes of writers Ian Rankin and Val McDermid.

" How they do it amazes me, I respect them so highly, the clues, and the narrative, it is so much hard work to keep the link going. Putting in a detail and then tracing it back, making sure it made sense and would fit in with the story. Making sure you write just so much and no more to keep the intrigue going... they are geniuses."

His latest book is called The Frequency of Us and took two years to write. It is a time-spanning mystery love story set in Bath, partially in the modern day, but also during the Second World War, when the city was bombed. Stuart spent a year thoroughly researching the impact of bombings on Bath, interviewing local historians and exploring the city for locations. The novel has been described by best-selling author Beth O'Leary as, "A fascinating, beautiful, heart-warming novel. It kept me gripped from the very first chapter".

The Frequency of Us, which is for sale in the Cheap Street book shop, Winstone's Hunting Raven books, is published in hardback by Little, Brown. You can order a copy via the local Frome bookshop by clicking HERE : their web site

Keith hopes that he will be part of a writers' event at the bookshop during the Frome Festival this summer, but otherwise has not booked any promotional events due to coronavirus.

But that has freed him up to start work on his fourth book which he did today (April 26). " It will be different again, " he promised.

Synopsis:

Frequency of Us follows young, naïve wireless engineer Will who meets and falls in love with Austrian refugee Elsa Klein at the start of the war: two years later the couple's home is bombed, and Will awakes from the wreckage to find himself alone. No one has heard of Elsa Klein. They say he was never married.

Seventy years later, troubled social worker Laura is sent to care for Will who tells her about the mysterious disappearance of his wife. Everyone thinks he's suffering dementia, but when weird things start happening in the house, she begins to suspect otherwise.