HUMANS OF FROME Ciara Nolan meets Keith Stuart

“I’ve witnessed the story of Keith’s debut novel, ‘A Boy Made of Blocks’ unfold over the past few months.  Hearing that he had written a piece for the Guardian newspaper which had compelled an editor at Little Brown imprint, Sphere to phone him up and challenge him to write a book by the end of the year is pretty much the stuff of dreams,” says Ciara.

“A two-book deal, contracts signed for publication in 22 countries and film rights on the table for discussion and Keith’s story sounds like that of a modern-day fairytale.

“A Boy Made of Blocks,  Keith’s debut novel, is described as a beautiful, funny and surprising story of family, love and autism, perfect for fans of The Rosie Project, David Nicholls’ Us and Nick Hornby’s About a Boy. The final draft of the book however did not magically appear within its deadline without a huge degree of work, sacrifice and life experience on the part of Keith and his young family.

“The boy at the centre of his fictionalised account of a young family’s experience is largely based on his own son who was diagnosed with autism when he was seven years old. Prior to this diagnosis they had known that their son was different to others and was not experiencing the world in a similar way to everyone else. Years of knocking on the doors of experts in the field and the frustration at being turned away by specialists only made them more determined to get to the bottom of their son’s difference. Finally, having exhausted various research resources and theories of their own, they received the diagnosis that they had dreaded and yet needed to hear, their young son was labelled with autism and at last they could get on with their lives.

“Although, that’s not what really happens is it? Life doesn’t just change overnight like that and although some systems were put in place at school to support him, they were still left dealing with a child who didn’t adhere to the everyday laws of communication, social interaction or fit into the usual categories that help us to understand the world and the people in it.

“Keith, a journalist and games editor at The Guardian newspaper makes no bones about being a great advocate of the modern technological world that we live in, he talks passionately about games and his own childhood where even in the early 1980s he and his father would play computer games together.  An outsider himself, he chose to study drama and English at university, an unusual choice for someone who didn’t quite fit in, but then he explains the freedom in acting where you can lose yourself in other characters. This too is something that appeals to him about games. Especially the likes of Minecraft.

“In an instant, my children aged 8 and 14 knew from the book title that the blocks being referred to were those of the Minecraft world, a world that they happily disappear off into regularly.  Keith explains that the gaming world that our children visit is no different to the milkshake parlours of the 1950s and the cafes of the 1960s, they all amount to the same thing – a place where children can go to be themselves without their parents.

“Except in Keith’s case, the Minecraft world is a place that he can go to with his young son, a place free of the usual rules, pressures and rigid structures, a place where he and his son can communicate and create together in a way that they can’t in the real world.

“He describes how his son has learnt so much from playing this game, information and vocabulary that evaded him before, the names of minerals and rocks such as obsidian are now second nature to him.  There is something about the Minecraft world which has given him the freedom to express himself through play and creativity.

“These days it is widely accepted that children with autism love this imaginative game world and  studies into why, reveal similar findings, there are no rules, it’s easy to get into, it’s real but it’s not, you can follow your own interests, there is virtually nothing that you can do wrong, and other people cannot mess up your stuff.

“It seems to offer a world where users can grow at their own pace and be in control, the perfect environment for those who live their lives as a round peg in a square hole.

“Keith’s family as a whole have benefited from his son’s personal growth through the online game, they have watched his metamorphosis over these years from silent to talkative, from disengaged to enthusiastic and they couldn’t be happier that he has found a window onto the world through which he can truly experience life.

“A Boy Made of Blocks a moving, hilarious and most of all true-to-life novel about the power of difference and one very special little boy will be published in hardback in September 2016 and in paperback in 2017.”