The character arc of Matt Haig
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 3 July 1975 in Sheffield, the son of a primary school headteacher and an architect who commuted to London, and raised in Newark in Nottinghamshire with a younger sister. Between then and now sit some teenage shoplifting he still regrets, a degree in English and History at Hull, a mental breakdown at twenty four, novels that retell Shakespeare with dogs and ghosts, a children's book made into a film, a number one non-fiction bestseller that spent forty six weeks in the top ten, a novel in 2020 about a woman and a library, and books that keep arriving. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Matt Haig?
A breakdown at twenty four, and the book everybody passes on.
He was born in Sheffield to a primary school headteacher and an architect who commuted to London, and grew up in Newark in Nottinghamshire with a sister three years younger. He has admitted to some minor shoplifting as a teenager and to the guilt that followed, including over a stolen tennis ball, which is a very particular kind of honesty and tells you most of what you need to know about him. He studied English and History at the University of Hull.
At twenty four he had a mental breakdown. Part of his non-fiction, especially, is inspired by it. He still occasionally has anxiety, and has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He has never presented any of that as resolved, which is exactly why people trust the books.
The fiction came first and it is stranger than people expect. His first novel retells a Shakespeare history play with the protagonists as dogs. His second is Hamlet, told by an introspective eleven year old dealing with his father's death and then his father's ghost. His third is about an obsessive father trying to keep a teenage daughter safe. A children's fantasy of his, which opens with the death of the protagonists' parents, won a national children's book prize, and another children's book of his was made into a film.
Then he wrote the non-fiction. Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller and stayed in the British top ten for forty six weeks, which for a book of that kind is close to unheard of. In 2017 he published a novel about a man who appears forty and has lived four hundred years. In 2020 came The Midnight Library, about a young woman unhappy with her choices, who tries to end her life and finds herself in a library run by her school librarian, where she can try the lives she did not live. A book of comfort followed in 2021 and another novel in 2024.
The moments
Matt Haig's timeline.
The 1980s
A headteacher's son
Everyday. Books in the house, and a father on the London train.
The 1990s
A stolen tennis ball
Setback. Thirty years on, he is still bothered about a tennis ball.
English and History at Hull
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A degree in reading, essentially, which turned out to be the training.
A breakdown at twenty four
Setback, and it changed everything. Twenty four years old, and the bottom went out of everything.
The 2000s
Shakespeare, with dogs
Milestone, and it changed his direction. His first novel is a Shakespeare history play, narrated by dogs.
Hamlet, at eleven
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Hamlet, rewritten as a grieving child in an English town.
A children's book prize
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A prize for a children's book that opens with an orphaning.
The 2010s
Write the non-fiction
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: put his own name on it, taken, or keep it in the fiction. The book went to number one and stayed in the top ten for forty six weeks.
Reasons to Stay Alive
Milestone, and it changed everything. Number one, and forty six weeks in the top ten, for a book about staying alive.
How to Stop Time
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Four hundred years in one man, and the loneliness of it.
The 2020s
The Midnight Library
Milestone, and it changed everything. A library of the lives she did not live, and a way back.
The Comfort Book
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A book made of the short things that help at four in the morning.
The Life Impossible
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Still writing, still about people starting again later than they wanted to.
The books keep coming and people keep handing them to each other, usually without saying why. What he set moving is on a lot of bedside tables at three in the morning, written by a man who has never once claimed to be finished getting better.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His had a breakdown at twenty four in the middle of it, and the books came after. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Matt Haig: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Matt Haig's character arc?
What happened to Matt Haig at twenty four?
How successful was Matt Haig's Reasons to Stay Alive?
What is Matt Haig's The Midnight Library about?
What novels has Matt Haig written?
Has Matt Haig written for children?
Where does this timeline of Matt Haig's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Matt Haig, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Sunday Times bestseller listings for Reasons to Stay Alive.
- Publishing records for his novels and children's books, and the Nestle Children's Book Prize.