the familiars stacey halls review guardian

“I was always good at English and when I was about 15 or 16 I started to buy magazines everything from Harpers & Queen and Vogue to Heat and Closer – I couldn’t get enough of them and thought I’d love to work on a magazine one day. Born in Lancashire in 1989 to parents who are market traders, Stacey was a lover of books and reading from an early age, but it was a long time before she realised that it was possible to make a living from writing. It’s both illuminating and refreshing talking to Stacey because while on the face of it she might embody the romanticised idea of ‘overnight success’ which people like to believe accompanies dream book deals, her career path is actually characterised by pragmatism and graft.

“But it was a huge wrench to leave because I’m very much a comfort zone person.” I loved my job but I reached burnout because I was still sub-editing four days a week, whilst also writing The Foundling and touring and doing lots of publicity for The Familiars,” she tells me when we speak via Zoom. “It just became untenable and something had to give. In fact, Stacey gave up her day job as a sub-editor on the magazine of a national newspaper only with the utmost reluctance, more than a year after landing her stellar book deal. Her second novel, The Foundling – also a bestseller – came out in 2020, and her third, Mrs England is to be published this summer. That novel – inspired by the 17th-century Pendle witch trials – went on to become the top-selling hardback debut novel of 2019, was a Richard & Judy pick and won a Betty Trask Award. Novelist Stacey Halls had every reason to ignore this directive, however, after signing a two-book deal for a six-figure sum in 2017 on the strength of her debut novel, The Familiars.

“Don’t give up the day job” is the traditional advice given to those seeking to earn a living from writing.

The familiars stacey halls review guardian