Tinder Press signs ‘dark and riveting’ literary debut by Twigg

Headline’s Tinder Press has signed Spoilt Creatures by Amy Twigg, a ”dark and riveting” literary debut about cults, transgression and female rage which won the BPA Pitch Prize and was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition and Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award.

Assistant editor Ellie Freedman acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Charlotte Seymour of Johnson & Alcock, and will publish on 6th June 2024 as one of Tinder Press’s lead debut fiction titles.

Spoilt Creatures tells the story of 32-year-old Iris who finds herself adrift: newly single, living at home with her mother and working a dead-end job. Her life changes when she meets the mysterious and beguiling Hazel, who lives at a women’s commune on a remote farm hidden in the Kent Downs. At the farm, the women can be loud and dirty, live and eat abundantly, under the leadership of the gargantuan Blythe.

Drawn to Hazel and the possibility of a new start away from a world of men who have only let her down, Iris throws herself into this alternative way of life, seizing on new experiences and hidden desires. But even among the women, she witnesses power struggles, cruelty and transgressions that threaten their precarious existence. When a group of men arrive on the farm, the commune’s existence is thrown into question, culminating in an act of devastating violence.

Twigg said: “I’m delighted to be working with Ellie, who approached the novel with great care and enthusiasm. To be read so closely and encouraged to develop your instincts as a writer is the dream: I feel lucky to have found that with Tinder Press, while being supported by my wonderful agent, Charlotte Seymour.”

Freedman said: “Very few novels have had me on the edge of my seat like Amy’s novel has. It is a completely absorbing read that has real bite, while also raising important questions about the precariousness of women’s spaces away from the male gaze, how we assign power and where unchecked female rage could lead.”