The short story that became Smethwick author's debut novel
Holding his debut novel in his hands for the first time was a surreal moment for David H Yeats.
"It was very odd. I couldn't quite relate to it because the words had been on my computer or in my head for all these years," he tells Weekend.
The author, now based in Smethwick, wrote a lot of The Opal Causeway, published under the pen name of D H Yeats, while living in Shrewsbury in 2005.
At the time, he was living in rented accommodation in Shrewsbury town centre while waiting to buy a house.
"I didn't have internet or a laptop so I used to go to the old reference library and rent a computer for an hour at a time," explains David.
"The book started out as a short story about a false arrest. I felt I needed to know more about the characters and I started inventing families for them. It grew and grew and grew."
But it wasn't until 2020 that the opportunity for the book to reach a wider audience started to become reality.
Through Writing West Midlands, which supports creative writers in the region, and The Literary Consultancy (TLC), he was able to receive a free manuscript assessment.
The positive response led to him securing a publishing deal for The Opal Causeway with Leicestershire-based established independent publisher The Book Guild Ltd.
"It's been a long road," says David, who launched the book at Birmingham's Ikon Gallery.
Described as a coming-of-age packed with diverse characters, the novel's synopsis reads: "As he explores his sexuality, Pete, a gay photographer, still mourning the death of his French grandmother, experiences the cruelties and injustices of a world completely at odds with the tenets instilled in him during childhood.
"While sharing a Notting Hill squat during a seemingly endless summer with friends Mel and Baz, he meets Brad, a mysterious American, at a happening in Chalk Farm.
"Travelling to California in search of Brad, Pete, seeking love and adventure, ventures halfway around the world looking for answers only to find them back home once he crosses over The Opal Causeway."
Although his book is set in the 1970s, David, who was brought up in East Kent, believes there are many similarities between that period in history and today.
"All of the issues that people face today are exactly the same as they faced then like the issues of gender, race, poor and rich and the environment.
"It's almost like they're coming back to haunt us in some ways because we they haven't been dealt with when they should have been," he explains.
He says his book was inspired not just by the critical issues of the decade but also "the fact that so many politicians seem forked-tongued and incapable of either telling the truth or delivering the change the world so desperately needs".
"My writing was also influenced by the anti-French sentiment because of France’s decision not to be involved in the Iraq war as well as stereotypical anti-French/EU sentiment I have heard in this part of the anglosphere over the years.
"I also wanted to develop in the novel a gay character who feels no shame about his sexuality and is not detached from but a member of a family; a non-nuclear family that transcends blood ties, language and nationality," he explains.
Since completing The Opal Causeway, he has also written Tales from the Opal Shores, a collection of 15 short integrated stories spanning from 1935 to 1965, and a novel of 82,000 words.
The latter, titled called Zinny and Little Zinny, is a sequel to The Opal Causeway and is set around the time of the opening of the Channel Tunnel, taking place in London and Paris.
Even before he started writing, books had been an important part of his life and in the 1970s he ran a bookshop called Bookstore in Tan Bank, Wellington with his sister Jenny Smith, to whom The Opal Causeway is dedicated.
Bookstore relocated to the market some years later and become popular both with the general public and local school teachers including Professor Mary Beard’s mother.
David, who appeared at last month's Shrewsbury Festival of Literature, says he is full admiration for the owners of independent bookshops such as Pengwern Books in Shrewsbury and Bear Bookshop in Bearwood.
"I really support independent book shops. I think they are so important. It's hard slog when they are competing against the likes of Amazon and Waterstones. I really take my hat off to people like that, they have a passion for it," he tells Weekend.
Wishing to learn more about the book trade, he relocated to London where he was employed by Dillon’s University Bookshop for a number of years.
This was followed by two years living in France, after which he returned to London to work as a technician in West End Theatre.
In the mid-1980s he studied for a B.A. in African History at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Later he returned to performing arts where he worked for fringe organisations and productions in the field of press, marketing and production.
"I've always pushed other people's careers, not I'm promoting my own," says David, who has also undertaken voluntary work with Wandsworth Friends of the Earth, Oxfam and the Terrence Higgins Trust.
Over the last two year, he has been working on Drifting Aimlessly Through Lockdown. Around 70,000 words long, it is structured into different parts and influenced by dreams, memories, observations, daily news items and his tinnitus.
David has been pleased by the response to The Opal Causeway and hopes to publish some of his other work in the future.
"It's nice, people seem to like it and I've had a lot of reviews on Goodreads from people I don't know," he tells Weekend.
*The Opal Causeway, published by The Book Guild, is available now, priced £9.99.
