'It's a subject on the minds of teenagers'

KEITH GRAY is reflecting on the last 18 years, the years which saw him grow from a teenager in Grimsby into a best-selling author living in Edinburgh. And what he would have missed out on if he hadn't had those years.

"I attempted suicide when I was 18," he explains. "I'm 36 now so I'm twice as old and this year, more than any other, I'm thinking about who I would have left behind and what I wouldn't have done. I wouldn't have been a writer for a start."

While he won't go into any details of what happened – "it's still a big thing for my family, I was very, very close to succeeding and they had to cope with me" – he is quite clear about the profound effect it had on his teenage self.

"I still haven't got over it," he confesses. "When people ask you why you did it, they expect one reason and actually there are dozens, if not hundreds.

"I had a lot of friends, which is why I write about friendship in all my books but there seemed to be a lot of pressure from the outside world.

"I remember it being a confusing time, trying to fit into the world in general. I didn't feel as if there was much of a future."

Of course, what his teenage self didn't know was that there was a very successful future ahead of him as the best-selling author of 14 books, aimed at that toughest-to-reach of markets, teenage boys.

The theme of suicide is one he's found hard to put into words though. "This is actually my third attempt," he says of his latest offering, Ostrich Boys. "The others didn't work out. They were about the issue rather than the story."

As Keith well knows, you don't hook a teenage audience with a heavy tome on "issues". Which is why Ostrich Boys is light on the preaching and heavy on the cracking tale; of three mates who "kidnap" their pal Ross in order to take him to the town of Ross in Dumfries and Galloway which he had always wanted to visit.

"Had" because Ross is actually dead and it's his ashes that the three boys are carrying. Along the way they start to question whether Ross's death – hit by a car while riding his bike – really was an accident and if not whether the friends might have been partly to blame for his state of mind.

"It's not autobiographical in any way," insists Keith, but his experience is one which is likely to chime with many of his audience . "It's the biggest killer of young men under 35," says Keith. "It's definitely a subject on the minds of many teenagers."

Keith should know. While his novels are penned on a wooden desk his father made in his home in Dalry which he shares with his partner Jasmine and parrot Bellamy, he makes frequent visits to schools where he often hears the all-too-honest opinions of his readers.

"You'll get lads who'll say, 'I quite liked the book but the ending was crap'!," he laughs, "but I quite like that – on a selfish note it can only make me a better writer."

Staying on top of his game is particularly important for a writer like Keith, who isn't bidding for time with other, better books. "My competition is the Xbox and the PlayStation," he explains. "My challenge is to get my lads to put down the PlayStation for quarter of an hour and pick up a book."

As educationalists all over the country have discovered, it's quite a challenge – how do you stop reading a book from being seen as something that's swotty and girly?

"Oh dear, this is where I get into trouble," Keith says, taking a deep breath. "I'm not a huge fan of the way books are taught in schools. Schools don't teach the enjoyment of literature. Schools teach how to pass exams. I personally wish there was more time in the school curriculum for the love, and pleasure and sheer entertainment that a book can give, rather than always looking to dissect the metaphors.

"I see myself as an entertainer. I don't write books to give someone homework. Shakespeare didn't write plays so that someone could pass an A levels. It's not the teachers' fault, it's the curriculum."

Some teachers obviously do manage to get past the curriculum to inspire their pupils, however Keith says it was an English teacher at his secondary school in Grimsby who got him reading.

From a working class background – mum Jane was a housewife, dad John a BT engineer – Keith says: "We really didn't have any books in the house. My parents are very, very proud of what I do but even now the only fiction in my parents' house is the books I've written."

He moved to Edinburgh eight years ago: "I had been up to Edinburgh to speak at the book festival and I just loved the city. Compared to Grimsby, it's really quite beautiful!"

Keith is paying back support of trust

ONE of the reasons Keith moved to Edinburgh is that he knew he could count on the support of the Scottish Book Trust.

It's support that he's now paying back. He's become the "virtual" writer in residence for the trust and is running a short story competition for youngsters aged 12 to 16.

"The idea of the virtual writer is to try to establish a kind of Bebo or MySpace, an online project for reading and writing. We have commissioned some top authors to write us exclusive short stories and I've done some podcasts. It's really beginning to snowball," he says.

Writers who have penned stories for the website include Marcus Sedgwick, author of My Swordhand is Singing, and Anthony McGowan, who is the author of Henry Tumour.

• For more information log on to www.scottishbooktrust. com/children-and-young-people