Halls returns to Manilla Press with fourth novel

Manilla Press, the literary imprint of Bonnier Books UK, has signed The Household, the new novel from the author of The Familiars, The Foundling and Mrs England, Stacey Halls.

The title, along with a further two novels, was acquired by Sophie Orme, publishing director at Zaffre and Manilla Press, from Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment. The Household will be published spring 2024 in hardback, e-book and audiobook.

The novel is based around Urania Cottage, the home for fallen women established in 1847 by Charles Dickens and funded by his friend Angela Burdett Coutts. The inmates – all young women – were plucked from prisons, workhouses and the streets, and given an opportunity to reform, learning skills and forming friendships at the house at Shepherd’s Bush, before emigrating to the colonies to begin new lives.

It follows two girls at the home, Martha and Josephine, as well as the eminent figure of Miss Coutts, who privately is plagued with her own demons. The publisher says this is Halls’ “most ambitious and captivating novel yet”.

Halls said: “Nothing excites me more than discovering women’s stories that have been consigned to a dusty drawer of history, and when I came across Urania Cottage, the ‘house of fallen women’, I knew I had to write about it.

"What interested me was not the Charles Dickens connection, but this attempt at an early refuge, a safe house for women who had been badly let down by society and wanted a second chance, and the microclimate that would create in an otherwise ordinary house in then-rural Shepherd’s Bush.

“On the surface, these young women were the opposite of what Victorian society expected them to be, and yet you had two of the most celebrated people of their time, Dickens and Angela Burdett Coutts, supporting and funding ’the experiment’, as they called it, in secret.

"When I found out about the house, my first question was why would they do it? And my second was, did it go to plan?"

Orme said: “Publishing Stacey Halls has been a highlight of my career. Her books marry irresistible storytelling, captivating characters and incredible writing, as well as giving voice to women from history who lived on the very margins of society. So I’m excited to bring her many fans The Household next spring. It will be Stacey’s first new novel in three years, and is her very best to date.

"I’m also delighted to have signed up another two books from Stacey following The Household. Our partnership with Stacey and Juliet is a special one and we can’t wait to see what incredible stories she comes up with next."

Mushens added: “Stacey’s writing goes from strength to strength and The Household feels like her best book yet."

The Familiars was shortlisted for the British Book Awards’ Debut Book of the Year and won the Betty Trask Award. It is currently in development for TV.

Last year, Halls was awarded the Women’s Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award for her third novel Mrs England which was further selected as a Waterstones Best Book of the Year and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and the Portico Prize.