Sceptre pre-empts actor Hannah Morrish’s ‘spell-binding’ debut novel
Ansa Khan Khattak, editorial director at Sceptre, has pre-empted rights to Such Stuff, the “short, dramatic and spellbinding” debut novel from actor Hannah Morrish.
Sceptre acquired UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada rights, in physical, e-book and audiobook from Rebecca Carter at Rebecca Carter Literary, with publication scheduled for spring 2027. US rights have been pre-empted by Cindy Spiegel at Spiegel & Grau, Canadian rights by Kiara Kent at Knopf Canada, and Spanish rights by Carme Riera at Alfaguara.
The novel opens as an actor arrives at the theatre, on the anniversary of her father’s death and her 31st birthday, to give what might be her final performance, though nobody knows that yet.
While the passions and dramas of her fellow actors play out backstage, she must cast off memories of the day, where’s she has been and what she has done, in order to step out of the wreck of her self and become her character.
The description continues: “The year since her father died has taught her that grief, like a role, has a way of seeping across boundaries. As the countdown to the storm on stage ticks on, might this be the place to lose oneself completely?”
As an actor, Morrish has performed in theatres including the National Theatre, RSC, Old Vic, Almeida, Schaubühne, Barbican and in the West End. She has been twice nominated for an Ian Charleson award for her work on stage, and has written for Shado Magazine. She was also the screenwriter of Ceres, a short film based on the myth of Ceres and Proserpina, in which she starred alongside Juliet Stevenson and for which she won Best Screenplay at the Discover Film Festival.
Morrish said: “I am so grateful for the remarkable response and support from Ansa, Cindy, Kiara and Carme and from my brilliant agent Rebecca Carter. I wrote Such Stuff during rehearsals for a play, not considering it to have a life beyond that. For it to have such phenomenal endorsement from this esteemed group of women is extraordinary. Such Stuff is a delicate, unusual, vulnerable novel and I’m over the moon it is in the very best of hands.”
Ansa Khan Khattak said of the acquisition: “I sat down to read Such Stuff and didn’t move until I’d finished. It’s a beautiful debut novel, the emotional impact of which belies its slim length. Hannah Morrish’s writing reminded me of Eimear McBride’s, or Natasha Brown’s: the power of her sentences drives you onwards until you’re desperate to know what the main character’s fate will be; Hannah is a genius at making you feel like everything is hanging in the balance.”
