Matt Haig (born 3 July 1975 in Sheffield) is an English writer and journalist. He writes both fiction and non-fiction for children and adults, often within speculative fiction. Several of his books, among them a novel and a memoir-style non-fiction title, reached the top of the bestseller charts in the United Kingdom.
He grew up in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and studied English and History at the University of Hull. His early adult novels, such as The Last Family in England, reimagine familiar stories with unexpected characters, and The Dead Fathers Club revisits Shakespeare's Hamlet through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy. His fiction tends toward dark, offbeat takes on family life. For younger readers, Shadow Forest won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize in 2007.
His non-fiction book Reasons to Stay Alive (2015), written after a personal crisis, went to number one on The Sunday Times list and spent 46 weeks in the UK top ten. In 2020 he published The Midnight Library, about a woman who, between life and death, explores the lives she might have led. The novel was shortlisted for a British Book Award in 2021 and adapted for BBC Radio 4. His legacy lies largely in how openly he writes about mental health, reaching readers who would not otherwise pick up speculative fiction.
Key works
- The Midnight Library (2020): an unhappy young woman finds a library where she can try out the other lives she might have lived.
- Reasons to Stay Alive (2015): a personal account of depression and anxiety, written for those going through hard times.
- The Humans (2013): an alien takes over the identity of a university lecturer to prevent a mathematical discovery from endangering Earth.
- How to Stop Time (2017): a man who looks forty but has lived for more than four centuries, and has met figures such as Shakespeare.
- A Boy Called Christmas (2015): a children's novel, illustrated by Chris Mould, about a boy and the origins of Christmas.
Curiosities
A teenage shoplifting confession
Haig has admitted to minor shoplifting as a teenager, including the theft of a tennis ball, and says he later felt guilty about it.
A library as a church
He has said that books are his faith and the library is his church, and he describes himself as an atheist.
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.