Some of the most familiar names included in the extensive, varied line-up of writers at Aye Write this year are Alistair Campbell, Ruby Wax, Val McDermid, Liz Lochhead, Janey Godley, Cameron McNeish, Josie Long in conversation with Frankie Boyle, Robin Ince, Aasmah Mir, Chris Brookmyre, Darren McGarvey, Polly Toynbee, and Sally Magnusson. An unnamed narrator arrives at an isolated cottage in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands, tracing the last known movements of his father, not long after the death of his mother. 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. 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.

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

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The papers are haphazard and don’t make a great deal of sense. The narrator’s father talks of searching for his wife, but also mentions the Devil. He records times and weather conditions precisely, then describes experiments whose purpose is unclear. One of his hand-drawn maps has the word ‘hotel’ marked prominently, but there doesn’t seem to be a hotel nearby. Perhaps the father has made some sort of breakthrough, but if so, its nature is inscrutable. Chris Carse Wilson began writing Fray in 2016 and kept it secret from everyone including his wife Elaine, 42, until it was finished.

Fray is a totally original novel and I loved it for that… A dangerous journey that throws up lots of surprises. The writing is awe-inspiring.’ - Alex Pine, bestselling author of the DI James Walker series A book by a keen runner who had long wanted to write about his mental health experiences but struggled to find a way to do so until he was caught in a mountainside storm will go on sale on Thursday. I know running can be hard at first and it's a big commitment. But I think if, if at any point in our lives, we introduce some running to it, that's going to make things better. You could be 13 or you could be 65, it doesn't matter when you choose to do it. There's a wonderful community waiting to welcome you to parkrun or to clubs or whatever it might be. It's just there for any of us to to embrace at any point if you're physically able to. And I just think it's just the best. Finally, I have to ask, is it true that you wrote your novel on the bus to work? This book is advertised as “a missing person mystery like no other.” No. No, it’s not. Stop lying. READBAIT!!! 😡My running and writing kind of have always existed in parallel to each other. I've been running for 30 years, I've been writing for 30 years. And I've always used both of them in different but complementary ways to manage my mental health – to manage challenges that I have with anxiety, all of which is linked to being autistic, which is not something I knew about until a year or two ago. You've said that being out in nature, running outside, is very important to you 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. 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. HarperNorth has pre-empted the “spine-tingling” début novel by Chris Carse Wilson, communications manager at V&A Dundee.

Dark and atmospheric, Fray is chilling and very original. I couldn't put it down.' - Simon McCleave My understanding of it is that it is about a son experiencing guilt followed closely by depression, after losing his parents, because he realises that he never really knew them. In particular his father, who is senses is geographically close by, yet more distant than ever.

Emotional response

Fray begins with its anonymous narrator arriving at a cottage in the Scottish Highlands. The narrator’s mother died some time ago, and shortly afterwards their father disappeared, apparently unable to accept what had happened. The narrator has now traced their father to this cottage – he’s not there himself, but the place is full of papers and maps written and drawn by his hand. The novel chronicles its narrator’s attempt to piece together these texts and, hopefully, find a clue to their father’s whereabouts.