Matt Haig

Ahhh. Fair. Fair fair point. Been getting this a bit since I dared to criticise billionaires pretending to be racist in order to get idiots to vote for Reform. And since I expressed edgy views like declaring pedophiles should probably be in prison and not ruling the world. But I get it. I hate being another one of those dicks who says let’s save the world in one post and buy my book in the next post. Almost as bad as a literal multibillionaire who moved to Monaco to avoid tax moaning that immigrants are the drain on society. So what can I say? I will certainly be paying my full rate of tax to give back to society, unlike the UK’s second richest man Jim Ratcliffe. The one who made his money not by writing stories but by buying up toxic chemical plants. And royalties from my last book went to all sorts of places. Money from all preorders and the big first week sales as always went to mental health and suicide charities. And they will again. It’s a tradition now. Oh and then there was helping raise money for Pellow library in Liverpool which was destroyed by rioters in 2024 campaigning against - ahh - the housing of asylum seekers. And I am currently trying to get a bookshop and cafe going that will support the homeless in Brighton. Anyway, one day they might invent something called Google where you could look at official data from the Office of National Statistics which clearly lays out that immigration brings more money to this country than it takes. Now after you have told me what to do with my house why not ask the tax dodgers you support how they improve the country.

Have honestly seen Taylor Swift get more hate for releasing an album than for billionaires being actual sex trafficking ped-philes. The world won’t heal with this over us.

I signed a lot of books this week. Apparently I broke records. Thanks to Lauren at CPI and everyone at Canongate. I have a short name to be fair. I promise I used my best handwriting, even if I had to be fast. If you would like to order a signed edition of my latest novel The Midnight Train you can do so via the link in my bio. They are almost half gone already.

It’s the circle of life

Nineteen years ago today we eloped and got married in Las Vegas. It was during my first work tour to America where literally no one showed up. My best mate who I first met when we were both nineteen. Like most long term couples I look at this and see a survival story, We survived drink, drugs, debt, ruptures, break ups, make ups, miscarriages, struggling for kids, struggling with kids, grief, depression, giving up everything to look after ill relatives, working together, working apart, careers imploding, me going wildly off the rails and somehow Andrea deciding to step off the train and walk the rest of that journey. We never wanted or planned to marry. It was never the point. It was just one adventure among many. We paid for a witness and chose the same chapel as Britney. It’s just good to understand someone and to be understood. I wouldn’t recommend our path but I am so glad we took it.