Former SGS Pupil Writes ‘Sunday Times Bestseller’
She was born in Manchester, grew up in the Peak District, and went to school in Stockport – and in January 2021 Abigail Dean became a published author whose debut novel was hailed as “a masterpiece”, “an astonishing achievement”, and a work of “gripping, beautifully written perfection”.
‘Girl A’, which follows the story of siblings who flee abusive parents, has hit the Sunday Times bestseller lists and is on its way to a screen adaptation following the acquisition of the rights by Sony pictures.
Abi, a former pupil of Stockport Grammar School, has always showed a passion for writing, which was noted by her school teachers. It is no surprise, then, that her novel includes a thank you to the school’s English department and her teacher Mr Howson.
After finishing at SGS, Abi read English literature at Cambridge University, complete a law conversion and after a few years of professional work joined Google as a commercial counsel. In the summer of 2018, successful lawyer Abigail decided to take time off work ahead of her 30th birthday and spent three months at Dulwich library in London writing her novel. Then, in October 2019, her dream came true as HarperCollins won a nine-way auction to publish ‘Girl A’.
She said: “I’m so excited to be working with the fantastic team at HarperCollins to introduce Girl A and the Gracie family to readers across the world. The whole process has been dreamlike, and I’m in awe of my agent, Juliet, who has worked tirelessly to make all of this happen. There is lots of excitement and a fair dose of nerves, but I’m so thrilled that people are going to get to meet the characters. I keep remembering all of the books that have made me feel stuff over the years, and I just hope that’s what Girl A does too.”
Abigail continues to work as a lawyer for Google, and she also writing her second novel. Despite her busy schedule she is still in touch with Stockport Grammar and is planning to devote some time to helping her school in their efforts to inspire current students.
Excellent well done