Matt Haig

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]

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 bestselling children's novel, Father Christmas and Me, is currently being adapted for film, produced by StudioCanal and Blueprint Pictures.

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.[6] He followed it with the sequel, Runaway Troll, in 2008.

Haig's vampire novel The Radleys was published in 2011.[7] 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.

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.[8] Reasons to Stay Alive won the Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards in 2016 and How to Stop Time was nominated in 2017.[9] 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.[10]

In 2020, Matt Haig released his novel The Midnight Library about a young woman named Nora Seed 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, Mrs. Elm. 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.[11] It was shortlisted for the 2021 British Book Awards "Fiction book of the year".[12] The Midnight Library was adapted for radio and broadcast in ten episodes on BBC Radio 4 in December 2020.[13]

In 2021, Haig appeared on Storybound, accompanied by an original score from Robert Wynia.[14]

The Comfort Book was released on 1 July 2021.[15]

As of 2015, Haig is married to Andrea Semple, and they lived in Brighton, Sussex, with their two children and a dog.[4][16] The children were homeschooled.[17]

Haig identifies as an atheist.[16] He has said that books are his one true faith, and the library is his church.[18]

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.[19] He still occasionally suffers from anxiety.[20] He has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.[21]

• Official website
• "Matt Haig | Reasons to Feel Okay | Edinburgh Internaional Book Festival". YouTube. edbookfest. 28 January 2022.