Matt Haig with How to Stop Time

“Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories.” Neil Gaiman

A prolific name in both adult and children’s fiction, and a writer of profound sensitivity and honesty, Matt Haig is one of our most celebrated contemporary authors. His works include the poignant novel The Humans, and the bestselling memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. We are delighted to welcome Matt to St Andrews this summer to discuss his latest book, How to Stop Time.

The novel features Tom Hazard, an ostensibly ordinary individual in his forties working as a teacher. However, in reality Tom is four centuries old, a rare condition causing him to age at a tenth the normal rate of other humans. Constantly altering his identity to remain inconspicuous, he has lived through the reign of Elizabeth I, the Jazz Age, and has travelled the globe as civilisation evolves around him. Continually alone, Tom longs for normality and to feel a purpose for his existence. With Matt’s usual sincerity of emotion and deftness of plotting, How to Stop Time is a moving, bittersweet tale of mortality, identity and love.