Chris Carse Wilson began writing Fray in 2016 and kept it secret from everyone including his wife Elaine, 42, until it was finished. The novel, set in the remote wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, is due for publication in April and is being billed as the “most haunting and mysterious debut novel of 2023”. This is an exciting, intense book which explores the redemptive power of nature and the universal challenges we all face living with our own mental health. Dark and atmospheric, Fray is chilling and very original. I couldn't put it down.' - Simon McCleave HarperNorth has pre-empted the “spine-tingling” début novel by Chris Carse Wilson, communications manager at V&A Dundee.

Chris, who is on sabbatical from his role as V&A Dundee’s communications manager, wrote Fray in secret – even hiding it from his wife until it was completed. Equally, if on any given day, I'm struggling or my anxiety is sparking or I'm just feeling grey and depressed and overwhelmed for whatever reason, then 10 or 20 minutes of running will not fix it, but it will make it better. You mentioned that while you are loving running, you aren't racing at the moment at all? Aye Write will also look ahead to exciting debut talent in its ‘Ones To Watch’ events. These will shine the spotlight on writers including Ryan Love, Lynsey May, Denise Saul, Mark Pajak, Chris Carse Wilson, and Wiz Wharton. Carse Wilson is a passionate advocate for mental health awareness who was diagnosed as autistic as an adult. He wrote Fray over several years in 15-minute bursts on the bus to and from work. Creative Scotland Head of Literature and Publishing, Alan Bett, said: “Aye Write once more brings a strong and diverse list of writers to Glasgow. Alongside the many recognised names, book festivals also play a key role in introducing new writers to the reading public.

The author said: “My mental health challenges are inextricably linked to being autistic and how I experience the world, which for 40 years of my life I never understood. Author Chris Carse Wilson, whose book Fray goes on sale on Thursday (Jane Barlow/PA) Apparently written in 20-minute bursts on the bus to his job as Communications Manager of V&A Dundee, and hidden from his wife until it was completed, Chris Carse Wilson’s debut novel is an intense study of grief and obsession, following two people who try to come to terms with bereavement by pushing themselves mentally and physically to their limits. Aye Write is produced by Glasgow Life, the charity which delivers culture and sport to enhance mental, physical and economic wellbeing, and is funded by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

The diagnosis has been an incredible moment, although I’m still learning and coming to terms with it.

Grief and obsession

Following their mother’s death from cancer, the narrator is faced with their father’s sudden departure to a mountain cottage. Feeling guilty for the row they had with their father before his trip, the narrator follows the father into the cottage. Carse writes the narrator as being uncomfortable, inexperienced and unknowledgable about the wilds of the Highlands. Its either that, which I prefer to believe, or Carse himself is. To the narrator, the mountains are threatening rather than alluring. He mistakenly states that he is in a place no mountaineers tred, as there are no such places. That combination of the wild, threatening weather and this abandoned building gave me the way into telling a story that is open and honest about mental health.” Fray is a book about family, love, and overcoming grief, set against the beauty and the threat of the Scottish Highland wilderness,” he says. Fray is set in the remote wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, and follows a nameless narrator as they desperately search for their missing father. Instead, they discover an abandoned cottage filled with thousands of confusing, terrifying scraps of paper, detailing the father’s frenzied attempts to find his dead wife.

A range of current topics and cultural themes underpins the extensive programme, with content focusing on subjects as diverse as the cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine, health and wellbeing, the environment and climate crisis, today’s political environment in the UK, sport, and the criminal justice system. What they find is an empty cottage, with the exception of thousands of scattered, cryptic notes left by the father. One of them says: “I am not gone. Mum is not gone. We are here. We are hidden.” 😱 At its heart, Fray is a book about love and self-acceptance, while also taking the reader on a wild adventure through the Scottish Highlands.”So I guess running is for you both a tool for managing mental health but, in a way, it’s also a metaphor for it? This book is advertised as “a missing person mystery like no other.” No. No, it’s not. Stop lying. READBAIT!!! 😡