JEP journalist Kelly Frost has had her first novel accepted for publication by UK publishing house Atlantic Fiction.
The Kings Head – described as “a swaggering debut of conflict and camaraderie” – will appear in hardback on 6 February next year, published by James Roxburgh, Atlantic Fiction’s publishing director.
Miss Frost (24), who has a BA in English Literature and Language from UCL and an MA in English and American studies from Lincoln College, Oxford, described the announcement as “a dream come true”.
“I feel very excited. It’s a really strange feeling because I’ve known about this for about a year. It’s not a secret but it’s been really weird because there’s been nothing I can point to or show people until now, so this is the first news that can be shared with everyone, which is really nice – it’s really nice to have everyone in my life on the same page. It is a dream come true, but it’s been a lot of work to get here, and a lot of time and emails,” she said.
Miss Frost – who joined the JEP in February last year – displayed the resilience of an experienced journalist when quizzed on the contents of her novel.
“I don’t want to go into the plot at this stage because it’s still early days and I don’t want to dig too deeply into the book itself,” she said resolutely.
The publisher’s synopsis conveys something of its energy, which is based on her own experiences and research while she was a student in London.
“It’s 1957 and the Kings – Harry, Tony, Saint, the most fearless girls in N4 – rule the bomb-struck streets of Finsbury Park. The war is over but the real battle’s just begun, as Harry, their unpredictable, prideful, dangerously charismatic leader, decides that the Seven Sisters Road should be theirs too. But this is territory owned by the Sisters, a rival North London gang, and not easily given up.”
Atlantic Fiction described Ms Frost’s writing as “as sharp and glittering as the flick-knives her protagonists carry”. “The novel is one of the most energetic and forceful debuts we’ve encountered for an age,” they said.
Written during evenings in 2020 while she was working in Voisins, The Kings Head represents the fruits of an ambition which Miss Frost has determinedly followed.
“It’s what I wanted to do, so I set out to do it. I just needed to do it. I hope that this is the start of something more to come. It comes out in February, so I guess we’ll see where that takes me and hope that there is much more to come,” she said.
– Miss Frost’s book is available to pre-order via Amazon: amazon.co.uk/Kings-Head-Kelly-Frost/dp/1805462385?
