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Stacey Halls

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Stacey Halls
Born
Stacey Nicole Bartlett

August 1989
Alma mater
Years active2019–present
SpouseAndy Halls
Children1
Websitewww.staceyhalls.com

Stacey Nicole Halls (née Bartlett; born August 1989) is an English author of gothic historical fiction. Her debut novel The Familiars (2019) became a Sunday Times bestseller and earned a Betty Trask Award. This was followed by further bestsellers The Foundling (2020) and Mrs England (2021). Halls won the 2022 Women's Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award.

Early life

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Halls grew up in Rawtenstall in the valley of Rossendale, the daughter of market traders Eileen and Stuart Bartlett. She attended Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School.[1] After completing her A Levels in 2007, Halls went directly into work as a legal secretary for sixth months before deciding to go to university, the first in her family to do so.[2] She went on to graduate from the University of Central Lancashire with a degree in journalism. Halls was named Most Promising Student Journalist of the Year (Undergraduate) at the 2012 PTC New Talent Awards.[3]

Career

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After graduating, Halls had jobs at The Bookseller and as a sub-editor for Fabulous, which she obtained through university work placements and staying with her cousin in Surrey. In her magazine jobs, she noted being one of the only employees with a northern accent and not from a monied background.[2] Her first attempt at fiction writing, a contemporary novel, was unsuccessful. She took time off in early 2017 to hone in on her second attempt.[4]

Previously known by her maiden name Stacey Bartlett, in November 2017, Zaffre (a Bonnier Books imprint) won a nine-way auction to publish Halls' official debut novel The Familiars in February 2019.[5] The novel is based on the Pendle witch trials. Production company The Bureau optioned the rights to adapt The Familiars for television.[6] Debuting at #2[7] with 11 weeks on The Sunday Times bestseller list,[8] making it the bestselling debut hardback novel of 2019,[9][10] The Familiars made the Richard & Judy Book Club list, received a 2020 Betty Trask Award,[11] and was shortlisted for Debut Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.[12]

Initially set to reunite with Zaffre for her Georgian London-set sophomore novel,[13] The Foundling became the inaugural publication of Manilla Press, a new Bonnier Books imprint launched in February 2020.[14] A #5 Sunday Times bestseller,[15] the novel was released under the title The Lost Orphan in the U.S. and Canada.[16][17]

Shortly after reaching 500 thousand sales between her first two novels,[18] Halls' third Mrs England was published in 2021 and opened at #4 on The Sunday Times bestseller list.[19] The novel follows an Edwardian children's nurse who moves from London to West Yorkshire, and combines elements from gothic novels such as Rebecca and Jane Eyre with elements from children's stories like Mary Poppins and The Railway Children.[20] Mrs England was longlisted for the 2021 Portico Prize[21] and the 2022 Walter Scott Prize.[22]

Halls won the inaugural 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction x Good Housekeeping Futures Award.[10]

The Stacey Halls bursary, which gives aspiring working class northern writers access to Arvon Foundation writing courses, was established in 2023.[23]

In 2024, Halls reunited with Manilla Press for her fourth novel The Household,[24] based on the true story of Charles Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts' Urania Cottage for homeless women.

Personal life

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Halls is married to journalist Andy Halls. They lived in London and Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire[25] before moving to Oxfordshire.[26] She has a son.[27]

Bibliography

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  • The Familiars (2019)
  • The Foundling (2020) (The Lost Orphan in some territories)
  • Mrs England (2021)
  • The Household (2024)

References

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  1. ^ Jacobs, Bill (29 January 2019). "Valley author's bewitching new book". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  2. ^ a b "My Writing Living: Stacey Halls". Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). 29 March 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  3. ^ "PTC New Talent Awards – Winners announced". InPublishing. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Stacey Halls joins John Barnes, Jenny Bond and Delia Smith at this year's Bradford Literature Festival". The Yorkshire Post. 19 June 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2024.(subscription required)
  5. ^ Campbell, Lisa (17 November 2017). "Bonnier Zaffre wins Bartlett's 'page-turning' debut after nine-way auction". The Bookseller. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  6. ^ White, Peter (29 March 2019). "'Lean On Pete' Producer The Bureau Moves Into TV After Optioning Stacey Halls' Witch-Trial Novel 'The Familiars'". Deadline. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  7. ^ Wood, Heloise (9 March 2019). "Halls' next two books go to Zaffre with TV deal for The Familiars". The Bookseller. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  8. ^ "Stacey Halls". Mushens Entertainment. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  9. ^ Comerford, Ruth (14 October 2022). "Halls wins Women's Prize-backed public vote on top young female writers". The Bookseller. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  10. ^ a b Finney, Joanne (14 October 2022). "Stacey Halls is our Futures award winner". Good Housekeeping. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  11. ^ Anderson, Porter (18 June 2020). "The UK's Society of Authors Names Winners of £100,000 in Awards". Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  12. ^ Skelton, Val (20 March 2020). "British Book Awards: 2020 shortlists". Information Today Europe. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  13. ^ Chandler, Mark (30 May 2019). "Zaffre to publish second Halls novel in February". The Bookseller. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  14. ^ "Bonnier Books UK launches literary imprint Manilla Press". Bonnier Books UK. 6 February 2024. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  15. ^ "The Foundling celebrates second week on Bestseller list". Mushens Entertainment. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  16. ^ Schneiderman, Jill (20 July 2020). "DIVINE Reads: The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls". Divine. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  17. ^ Mendez, Anne (26 June 2020). "Review: The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls". The Lit Bitch. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Stacey Halls reaches 500k sales milestone with The Familiars and The Foundling". Mushens Entertainment. 6 March 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  19. ^ Hasty, Ashley (14 April 2021). "Book Feature - Mrs. England by Stacey Halls". Hasty Book List. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  20. ^ Macenulty, Trish (18 April 2022). "Stacey Halls Updates the Gothic Novel in Mrs. England". Historical Novel Society. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  21. ^ Anderson, Porter (28 September 2021). "'The Spirit of the North of England': The Portico Prize's Longlist". Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  22. ^ Wood, Heloise (7 February 2022). "Faulks and Halls battle it out on Walter Scott longlist". The Bookseller. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  23. ^ "Stacey Halls Bursary". Arvon. 3 November 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  24. ^ Brown, Lauren (20 July 2023). "Halls returns to Manilla Press with fourth novel". The Bookseller. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  25. ^ Halls, Stacey (16 February 2020). "Things You Only Know If You Live Apart From Your Husband". Grazia. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  26. ^ West, Zoe (28 December 2021). "In conversation with Stacey Halls". Woman & Home. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  27. ^ "Behind the books: author Stacey Halls". Martha Brook. 23 April 2024. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
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