- A love letter to the seaside town of Portobello
- Author is a former journalist from Fife who’s worked at a variety of outlets including the Daily Record, The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday
- Main character is a journalist and draws on this experience
- Two endorsements from Dept. Q actors
“The book is a satirical look at the state of modern journalism through the eyes of the
protagonist Frank who is struggling to makes sense of a world where Millennials rule.” explains the author, ex-journalist Kevan Christie.
“It’s essentially a love letter to the seaside town of Portobello where the protagonist Frank resides.I tapped into my own experience of growing up in Porty during the 70s and 80s where my granny ran a guest house, in particular the deep sense of nostalgia I have for the place, glimpsed through rose-tinted spectacles. Memories of long hot summers spent at the Open-Air Pool and buying quarters of sweets from Mrs Webber’s along with trips to the paddling pool, the Daisy Park and countless birthday parties at the trampoline centre provided the inspiration for my debut novel. I set out to explore the impact of gentrification on a traditional seaside town and how conflict can arise between locals, resistant to change and the influx of a wealthier middle-class who demand a better class of coffee.”
Fifty-something newspaper columnist, Frank Savage, pens a controversial piece calling for dogs and babies to be banned from cafés as his swansong to journalism. Instead of being dismissed, the column catapults him to stardom—and into further trouble.
On a night out, Frank spots his arch-enemy, Brewster, 56—an apparently reformed racist, homophobic football hooligan turned drug dealer, now a respected figure in the local community—whom he blames for his brother’s death.
This coincides with the arrival of his eldest daughter, Naomi, whom Frank hasn’t seen for years. A genius with numbers, she works for an organised crime syndicate in London, headed by the Wise One, but is desperate to break free and go straight. The Syndicate places Naomi in the seaside town of Portobello, Edinburgh, to work alongside Brewster, overseeing their money laundering operation.
As Naomi and Frank grow closer and begin to heal old wounds, neither realises they are both hiding secrets that would devastate the other.
Kevan adds,
“I wanted to parody a mid-life crisis, where Frank is trapped by nostalgia and detests everything around him, played out as a crime thriller in the seaside town of Portobello where he grew up.
I set out to shine a light on the impact of gentrification and how the influx of a monied class with their middle-class tropes like pretentiously named kids, ‘wild swimming’ and desire for over-priced coffee creates tension among the locals.
It examines the ageing process through the eyes of Frank who is crippled by hypochondria along with alcohol and gambling addictions, while harbouring a deep sense of loss for his younger brother and regret that he hasn’t been a better father to his two daughters.
But most of all I set out to make people laugh and hopefully readers will recognise aspects of their own lives in the characters I have created.”
Born in Edinburgh, Kevan Christie left school at 16 to work in a builder’s merchant. He spent the next two decades doing a variety of jobs in the city’s financial institutions. He gained a degree in journalism from Napier University in 2006 and there followed a career with the Daily Record, The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. To Be Frank is his debut novel.
Find out more at https://bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/crime-and-thrillers/to-be-frank
