The Reasons to Stay Alive author talks to Lisa Allardice about finding solace in children’s fiction, his Twitter addiction and why his breakdown made him happier
Last Boxing Day Matt Haig was having “a bad morning”. This was not just the usual post-Christmas blues: Haig’s struggles with depression and anxiety, almost leading to suicide in his mid-20s, were acutely documented in his phenomenally successful memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. To cheer himself up, he decided to write a poem for his kids, and the result is his latest book, The Truth Pixie, completed pretty much that day. The uplifting tale of a young girl cheered by a cheeky sprite who is unable to lie, The Truth Pixie is short and very sweet. “I wanted to think of something that would comfort them,” he says. “In the same way that Reasons comforts adults in that you are acknowledging that pain.”
Since then, it has been quite a year for Haig, who has been in the bestseller list four times: his latest novel, How to Stop Time, was a Richard and Judy book club pick in January; Reasons, which spent 46 weeks in the Top 10 in 2015, returned on the back of his follow-up Notes on a Nervous Planet, which made it to No 1 in the summer; and now his poem, published just in time for Christmas stockings. “Quite a mad year,” he agrees. “The Truth Pixie is the one that really pleases me because it was a total surprise. It was just a little side thing.”
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