Dr Andrew Fagan on pursuing his dream to publish a novel

Essex Human Rights Centre's Dr Andrew Fagan has taken a break from academic writing to pursue his passion for fiction.

He tells us what inspired him to publish his first novel, what we can expect from the storyline and why others should pursue their creative writing dreams:

Tell us about your novel and the key narrative behind it?

Scaling the Ladder is set in and around areas of South London, which I grew up in. It charts the journey of Adam as he seeks to become the best version of himself that he can be. The novel begins with Adam facing the possibility of being sent to prison three days before Christmas in 2016 and concludes with a rather different, far more radical confrontation with law and order three years later.

Adam does change profoundly over the course of the novel, but in ways which defy dominant notions of what it means to “get on” in life and in ways which will surprise some readers. Scaling the Ladder critically engages with the gentrification of space and mentality which has affected so many deprived communities in modern times.

My novel provokes the reader to reconsider how we have largely come to understand what counts as personal and collective progress, or self-improvement in our deeply unequal and divisive age. It seeks to highlight and raise important questions about social class and identity in contemporary society.

What was the inspiration behind the storyline?

After decades of being largely ignored, social class has re-emerged as a key factor in the politics of many modern societies. Arguably the most eye-catching example of this has been the rise of authoritarian populism and the re-election of Donald Trump in 2024.

Some on the liberal progressive side of the political divide have partially blamed our political turmoil on the working classes, and particularly, white working-class voters. Others are more sympathetic to the plight of the so-called “left behind” and have pointed to declining rates of social mobility as a key cause in the resentment of many working-class communities.

I have long been troubled by what I see as some of the assumptions underlying both of these perspectives, which, I see as sharing a view of being working-class as, in various ways, a diminished, “unsuccessful” form of life. Talented people from working-class backgrounds are expected to want to “escape” from those environments and strive to become “middle class”.

Scaling the Ladder seeks to challenge these ways of thinking about ourselves and others. In so doing, it also raises important questions about some of the key challenges we currently face.

If there was one thing you want the reader to take away from your book, what would it be?

Many of us are familiar with the notions of the unstated norms of whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality and being able-bodied. My novel seeks to expose and study the unstated norm of “middle-classness”. I’m provoking, inviting readers to think again about class and the dominant notions of individual and collective progress and self-improvement which still exert such a profound influence upon our world. 

What made you step away from academic writing and write a novel instead?

I have written Scaling the Ladder alongside writing four academic articles. While I do genuinely love the process of academic research and writing, I felt an irresistible need to try a different form of self-expression to explore key themes in my thinking more generally: inequality, poverty, justice, progress, what it means to lead a good life in such troubled times.

They say that you should write about what you know. I have a very rich and (for many perhaps) rather bizarre past. I come from the community that Scaling the Ladder focuses upon. I know that world very well. It’s a complex and often very misunderstood world, that is full of amazing people trying to survive and get by as best they can. Writing a novel enabled me to dramatically share some of these characters and some of that life with a wider and more diverse readership.

Now you have published your first novel, are you planning to continue writing?

I am currently writing an academic book on human rights and the culture wars, which will be published by Bloomsbury in 2027. So, I don’t have any immediate plans or opportunity to write any more fictional pieces. Readers of Scaling the Ladder will see that there is scope to develop Adam’s story further and I hope to do so in due course.

I have also written a three-act play (which was considered but sadly not taken up by the National Theatre) entitled No One Likes Us, which is also about class, identity and cultural division!

What would your advice be to other academics thinking of writing their own novel?

I’d say that if you have an urge to write fiction, you should go ahead and do it. Most, if not all of us, have an urge to be creative. All too often life prevents us from exploring these impulses. I’d say that, if you can carve out some space and time to write creatively, do it, go for it. You won’t regret it.