Heinemann pre-empts horror debut from BAFTA winner Maclean

PRH imprint William Heinemann has pre-empted an “unsettling” horror novel debut from BAFTA-winning writer Will Maclean.

Publisher Jason Arthur pre-empted world rights (all languages) for The Apparition Phase from Alexander Cochran at C&W Agency. The novel will be published in October 2020 and in p/b by Windmill in 2021.

The debut is set in early 1970s Suffolk and follows two childhood friends with a penchant for the supernatural. According to the publisher: “When Tim and Abi decide to fake a photo of a ghost to frighten an unpopular school friend, they set in motion a deadly and terrifying chain of events that neither of them could have predicted, and are forced to confront the possibility that what began as a callous prank might well have taken on a malevolent life of its own.”

Arthur said: “I’m thrilled to be publishing Will Maclean’s atmospheric, unsettling and brilliant debut. It’s a novel in which the uncanny is handled with great skill. Weird in the truest sense of the word, it’s also utterly compelling and discomforting, and wonderfully captures the period in which it is set. And it very much scared the hell out of me.”

Maclean has worked as a scriptwriter for television personalities Alexander Armstrong, Miranda Hart, Al Murray and Tracey Ullman. His work for children’s television has seen him form part of writing teams who picked up two BAFTAs and an International Emmy. He lives in London with his wife and young daughter.