A F Steadman in conversation about her world-record-breaking childrens debut

The prologue to Skandar and the Unicorn Thief (Simon & Schuster Children’s) opens to a scene of chaos: eight marauding beasts gnash bloody teeth, unfurl skeletal wings and take aim with razor-sharp horns. Here are unicorns as you have never seen them before, a deliciously dark antidote to the gentle, rainbow-hued creatures which dominate so many children’s books. “I remember really vividly having the image of bloodthirsty unicorns in my head,” author Annabel Steadman (who will write under the name A F Steadman) tells me over video call from her home in north London. She began writing down unicorn names in a little black notebook—"New-Age Frost", "Scoundrel’s Luck", "Red Night’s Delight"—“and then I saw an image of a boy riding a unicorn.”

I picked up a book, read the prologue and thought, ‘Why aren’t I doing this?’ It was a really pivotal moment

Steadman put the idea on hold for several years but happily for middle-grade readers Skandar is now the first in a planned five-book fantasy series to be launched by Simon & Schuster Children’s Books this April. In this magical world, unicorns may be naturally murderous but the good news is that they can be tamed by bonding with a young rider. Each year, 13-year-olds are invited to take the Hatchery Exam, which uncovers a lucky few destined to bond with their own unicorn. These children are transported to a secret island where they train as riders, hatching their unicorn and bonding with it. Enter Skandar Smith, our unremarkable hero who has only ever wanted to be a unicorn rider. Just as his dreams begin to come true, the annual Chaos Cup is disrupted by a dark and twisted enemy who steals the island’s most powerful unicorn and Skandar discovers a secret that could blow his world apart. It’s a wildly entertaining fantasy adventure that lives up to all the hype: fast-paced, funny and immersive, full of plucky heroes, sky battles, elemental magic and the powerful bond between human and unicorn. 

The rich world-building of Steadman’s magical universe is one of the book’s greatest strengths. Long a fan of stories about transitional worlds, like His Dark Materials and Elizabeth Kay’s The Divide, Steadman wanted a world that felt like it could exist but was a little outside of our reality. “I wanted the characters to do magic but I didn’t want them to be magic,” she explains. “I wanted a foundational mythology through the elements.” On arrival at training school, the riders take part in a trial which decides their elemental allegiance: fire, earth, water or air. Her mythology has an internal logic, which keeps it grounded. “When you run into plot holes it’s sometimes quite tempting,” she admits, “to just fix it with magic. I resist that and want it always coming back to the elements or the bond so it feels believable.” The book is intensely filmic, from dramatic set pieces like the Chaos Cup to intricately imagined locations including The Eyrie, where the students live. “I’m a really visual writer,” says Steadman. “If I can’t ‘see’ it I struggle to write it. It has to be able to play out as if it’s a scene.” 

Relationships are every bit as important as the fantasy backdrop, centred around a quartet of children who experience both the complexities of friendship and the evolution of the bond with their unicorns. Skandar, explains Steadman, “is the kind of person who leads with his heart rather than his head. He’s quite insecure about friendships, because he’s been bullied at school and he doesn’t understand how to fit in very well.” Bobby is the opposite. “She doesn’t care what anyone thinks, she has a wicked sense of humour and is extremely competitive.” Flo is the quartet’s most gentle character, often the peacemaker in the group. “Like Skandar, she is struggling with what she has been given with her unicorn. Her journey is trying to be brave.” Finally there is Mitchell, so desperate to impress his father that he has forgotten how to be himself. “They balance each other out, or they do when they’re working together.” 

Although the idea of elemental allegiance may recall the Hogwarts houses of Harry Potter or the factions of Veronica Roth’s Allegiant, Steadman cleverly subverts the idea. Skandar and his friends may be “chosen ones” but they can only succeed when they work together. “Yes, you’re a fire wielder but there are bits of you that don’t fit with that and bits of your friends that can help you to go on your way in the world. Learning about those visible and invisible parts of people makes us all stronger. The elements work together best.” 

Steadman grew up in Kent, a typically bookish child who dreamed of becoming an author and wrote her first book aged 12, her tastes ranging from children’s fantasy to Russian classics and South American magic realism. She put the dream on hold to pursue a practical career in law, but embarked on a Masters in Creative Writing at Cambridge University in 2017 following an epiphany in a branch of Waterstones. “I picked up a book, read the prologue and thought, ‘Why aren’t I doing this?’ It was a really pivotal moment.” She wrote both Skandar and a book for adults over the two years of the course, finishing the adult book first and securing an agent. After nine months on submission, the adult book didn’t sell. “You get all that build-up and then nothing happened at all. At the time it was devastating.” 

Bruised from the encounter, she dusted off the children’s manuscript and sent it to just one agent, Sam Copeland, in an email with the subject line: Bloodthirsty Unicorns. Copeland loved it and the pair worked on the manuscript over the first 2020 lockdown, preparing it to go out on submission that September. Steadman’s expectations were low but the response was instant, rapidly escalating into a multi-publisher auction won by Simon & Schuster UK and US in what is believed to be a world-breaking deal for a children’s début author. “It was amazing. I couldn’t comprehend it at the time,” she recalls. Skandar has now sold in 34 territories and a major film deal was struck with Sony Pictures—Steadman will act as an executive producer.