It’s my pleasure today to welcome William Keeling to stay in with me to chat about his writing. My thanks to Alan Jepson for putting us in touch with one another.

Staying in with William Keeling

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag William and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it? 

What can we expect from an evening in with Belle Nash and the Bath Circus (being the second volume of The Gay Street Chronicles)? A long night, but in a good way. Get the candles out.

I will!

Jeanette Winterson declares the book to be “Another triumph!”. Matthew Parris says, “There is a brilliance in The Gay Street Chronicles”.

Those are pretty good endorsements William!

I could have brought along the first volume, Belle Nash and the Bath Soufflé but Bookaholic Bex has issued an UNMISSABLE BOOK ALERT on Twitter for Vol 2: “A masterpiece. Funny, clever and even more entertaining than the first one.”

Oo. I have a lot of respect for fellow blogger Bex!

With “unforgettable characters and a brilliant plot” (thank you, Bex), the Chronicles is a series of satirical-historical novels set in late Regency Bath. Imagine Tales of the City meets Jane Austen. The books are comic but do not shy away from the misogyny, racism and homophobia of the era.

“A real romp of a book – full of surprises!” said Alexander McCall Smith of the first volume, and the second is even better! I’ll leave the final word to N.J. Cooper, crime critic of the Literary Review: “Another moving, funny and shocking instalment of Belle Nash’s story. Unmissable.”

I have a feeling my towering TBR pile needs to get a bit taller. Both books sound great.

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

I’ve brought along a Queen Anne silver toast rack. My late uncle, a former resident of Gay Street in Bath whose undiscovered manuscripts make up The Gay Street Chronicles, bequeathed me the toast rack. Like any decent, self-entitled, person, I only eat toast from a rack.

Well quite!

I’ve also brought along the tea cosy that Mr Quigley, the nonagenarian music master, used for his hat; and a bag of half-finished knitting left by the spinster Miss Prim. It includes her knitted Final Will & Testament. If you could provide the tea, I’ve made an array of finger sandwiches for us to enjoy whilst we tittle-tattle the evening away.

I can ALWAYS provide tea. There’s never a moment without a pot brewing in this house.

As for music. I have a recording of The Anonymous Lover, the sole surviving opera by Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799). The son of a French plantation owner and Nanon, an enslaved Senegalese woman, Saint-Georges was the leading composer, conductor, violinist, fencer and lover of his era in France. Largely forgotten, the genius Saint-Georges is a testament as to why we must combat bigotry if only to understand our own history. Mr Quigley also had the hots for Saint-Georges, so it would be remiss not to listen to the great man’s music.

Guests? Anyone who has a petticoat is welcome to attend – but how many petticoats should ladies wear? As many as they dare. There is, after all, nothing worse than a limp frock.

Ah – there you have me. I don’t think I possess a petticoat. However, I’ll sit in the corner and eat the sandwiches whilst you entertain the guests with tales of Gay Street. Thanks so much for staying in with me William. And good luck with the new book!

Belle Nash and the Bath Circus

When a souffle fails to rise, friends try to find out why and uncover a web of corruption that spreads throughout Bath’s legal system. Set in the early 1830s, this comic gay historical novel exposes the bigotry of the times but also introduces a new literary and moral hero-Belle Nash, city councillor and bachelor. About time!

Belle Nash and the Bath Circus is available for purchase here.

About William Keeling

William Keeling is a former foreign correspondent of the Financial Times best known for exposing a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal in Nigeria. Accused of being a CIA spy by the Nigerian government, he was arrested, interrogated, and summarily deported. Alarmed by real world horrors, William turned to fiction with The Gay Street Chronicles, a series of satirical-historical novels. William lives and writes in Bath.

For further information about William, visit his website and follow him on Twitter @TheGayStreetCH1 or find him on Instagram. There’s a Facebook page too!