Matt Haig

Matt Haig (born 3 July 1975) is an English author and journalist. He has written both fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults, often in the speculative fiction genre.

Matt Haig
Haig at the 2024 Edinburgh International Book Festival
Born	(1975-07-03) 3 July 1975 (age 49) Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Author journalist
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Hull
Genre	Speculative fiction
Years active	2002–present
Spouse	Andrea Semple ​ (m. 2013)​
Children	2
Website
matthaig.com

Early life

Haig was born on 3 July 1975 in Sheffield.^[1][2] He grew up in the Nottinghamshire town of Newark^[3] and later went on to study English and History at the University of Hull.^[4]

Career

Haig at Foyle's Bookstore, London, February 2016

Haig is the author of both fiction and non-fiction for children and adults.^[5] His work of non-fiction, Reasons to Stay Alive, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller and was in the UK top 10 for 46 weeks. His children's novel, A Boy Called Christmas, was adapted for film which was produced by StudioCanal and Blueprint Pictures.^[6]

His novels are often dark and quirky takes on family life. The Last Family in England retells Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 with the protagonists as dogs. His second novel Dead Fathers Club is based on Hamlet, telling the story of an introspective 11-year-old dealing with the recent death of his father and the subsequent appearance of his father's ghost. His third adult novel, The Possession of Mr Cave, deals with an obsessive father desperately trying to keep his teenage daughter safe. His children's novel, Shadow Forest, is a fantasy that begins with the horrific death of the protagonists' parents. It won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize in 2007.^[7] He followed it with the sequel, Runaway Troll, in 2008.^[8]

Haig's vampire novel The Radleys was published in 2011.^[9] In 2013, he published The Humans. It is the story of an alien who takes the identity of a university lecturer whose work in mathematics threatens the stability of the planet who must also cope with the home life which accompanies his task.^{[citation needed]}

In 2017, Haig published How to Stop Time, a novel about a man who appears to be 40 but has, in fact, lived for more than 400 years and has met Shakespeare, Captain Cook and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In an interview with The Guardian, Haig revealed the book has been optioned by StudioCanal films, and Benedict Cumberbatch had been "lined up to star" in the film adaptation.^[10] Reasons to Stay Alive won the Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards in 2016 and How to Stop Time was nominated in 2017.^[11] In August 2018, he wrote lyrics for English singer and songwriter Andy Burrows's music album, the title of which was derived from Haig's book Reasons to Stay Alive.^[12]

In 2020, Matt Haig released his novel The Midnight Library about a young woman who is unhappy with her choices in life. During the night she tries to kill herself but ends up in a library managed by her school librarian. The library is between life and death with millions of books filled with stories of her life had she made some decisions differently. In this library, she then tries to find the life in which she's the most content.^[13] It was shortlisted for the 2021 British Book Awards "Fiction book of the year".^[14] The Midnight Library was adapted for radio and broadcast in ten episodes on BBC Radio 4 in December 2020.^[15]

In 2021, Haig appeared on Storybound, accompanied by an original score from Robert Wynia.^[16]

The Comfort Book was released on 1 July 2021.^[17]

Personal life

Haig married Andrea Semple whom he knew since they were teenagers, and they live in Brighton, Sussex, with their two children—Lucas (born 2008) and Pearl (born 2009)—and a dog.^{[4][18][19][20]} The children were homeschooled.^[21]

Haig identifies as an atheist.^[18] He has said that books are his one true faith, and the library is his church.^[22]

Some of Haig's work — especially part of the non-fiction books — is inspired by the mental breakdown he suffered from when he was 24 years old.^[23] He still occasionally suffers from anxiety. He has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.^[24]

Bibliography

Novels

• The Last Family in England (Jonathan Cape, 2004); US title, The Labrador Pact
• The Dead Fathers Club (Cape, 2006)
• The Possession of Mr Cave (The Bodley Head, 2008)
• The Radleys (Canongate Books, 2010)
• The Humans (Canongate Books, 2013)
• How to Stop Time (Canongate Books, 2017)
• The Midnight Library (Canongate Books, 2020)
• Tales of Connection (Van Ditmar 2021), a selection of stories from Notes on a nervous planet, The comfort book and Reasons to stay alive.
• The Life Impossible (Canongate Books, 2024)

Children's books

• Shadow Forest (2007); US title, Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest
• The Runaway Troll (Cape, 2008); US title, Samuel Blink and the Runaway Troll LCCN 2008-702 ISBN 9780399247408
• To Be A Cat (Bodley Head, London, 2012) illustrated by Pete Williamson LCCN 2015-298269 ISBN 9780370332062
  • To Be A Cat (Atheneum, New York, 2013) illustrated by Stacy Curtis LCCN 2012-28520 ISBN 9781442454057
• Echo Boy (Bodley, 2014)
• A Boy Called Christmas (Canongate Books, 2015) illustrated by Chris Mould LCCN 2015-43442 ISBN 9780399552656
• The Girl Who Saved Christmas (Canongate Books, 2016) illustrated by Chris Mould
• Father Christmas and Me (Canongate Books, 2017) illustrated by Chris Mould
• The Truth Pixie (Canongate Books, 2018) illustrated by Chris Mould
• Evie and the Animals (Canongate Books, 2019) illustrated by Emily Gravett LCCN 2019-393166 ISBN 9781786894281
• The Truth Pixie Goes to School (Canongate Books, 2019) illustrated by Chris Mould LCCN 2020-476813 ISBN 9781786898265
• Evie in the Jungle (Canongate Books, 2020) illustrated by Emily Gravett
• A Mouse Called Miika (Canongate Books, 2021) illustrated by Chris Mould

Non-fiction

• How Come You Don't Have An E-Strategy (Kogan Page, 2002)
• Brand Failures (Kogan Page, 2003)
• Brand Royalty (Kogan Page, 2004)
• Brand Success (Kogan Page, 2011)
• Reasons to Stay Alive (Canongate Books, 2015)
• Notes on a Nervous Planet (Canongate Books, 2018)
• The Comfort Book (Canongate Books, 2021)