Jay McGuiness on his debut novel: ‘Even if you change your situation, your class is really hard to change’

The pop industry is notorious for chewing up and spitting out young stars. Finding a second or third act when a pop career falls apart or comes to a natural end can be a challenge. In contrast, Jay McGuiness of classically manufactured British-Irish pop outfit The Wanted has made the transition look easy. After three chart-topping years performing around the world with The Wanted (you might remember such pop bangers as Glad You Came and Heart Vacancy) he went on to jive his way to the winner’s podium on the 2015 edition of Strictly Come Dancing and has since starred in a number of theatre productions and television shows including Big the Musical, where he took the role made famous by Tom Hanks.

A lifelong fan of fantasy books, from JK Rowling to Terry Pratchett, his latest pivot is writing books for a young adult audience. He says he had been beavering away on the book “for a few years” influenced by his fantasy heroes and keen to create the kind of multilayered world he has loved to escape into since childhood.

“The arrogance of me ... as soon as they said ‘Would you be interested in writing a book?’, I was like, yeah, I’m going to plan three,” says the affable McGuiness over a video call from London.

The result of that first book is Blood Flowers, which has been described variously as a “dystopian romantasy” and “perfect for fans of Hunger Games”. There is plenty of snootiness about celebrities turned writers, much of it justified. As it turns out the debut from the former pop star is - don’t fall off your chair - a genuinely solid and entertaining young adult novel. McGuiness has a vivid writing style, bringing to colourful life the story of 17-year-old Bear, who lives with his friends in the dilapidated market town Cobbleside while the wealthy and privileged enjoy a far more bountiful life in luxurious homes located high above the town in the area known as Roofside. Bear has hidden talents - an extraordinary ability to harvest vast amounts of the valuable and magical crop Sinsen - that will eventually propel him out of the gutter.

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“I like feeling really grounded in a world that’s real and then slowly, you look at something slightly different and go, huh? I was wrong about the world. I was wrong about everything. I love magical systems. And I like teasing them out.”

Blood Flowers is a richly told story of witchcraft, betrayal and murder, riven with class divisions, corruption and a striking coming of age narrative. Coming from a working class background in the Nottinghamshire town of Newark in England, McGuiness says class - Roofsiders are the haves and Cobblesiders the have nots - was an issue he was eager to explore.

“It’s something I am confronted with every day,” says the 33-year-old, reflecting on his success in the pop and musical theatre world and how over the years he has reconciled that with his working-class roots. “I’ve experienced how even if you change your situation, your class is really hard to change. I wanted to look at how, when you suddenly feel like you have the world at your feet, and you are surrounded by people who’ve been brought up with everything you never had, you find out about your own prejudices about those people and you also find out the prejudices they have about you.”

Even before Covid, I was already annoyed at the government, about the NHS and about the Tories stripping the country of its systems that protect the poorest people

Growing up in Newark, with four siblings, an electrician dad and a mother who worked in the home, he wasn’t aware of class. “I just remember being embarrassed about certain things,” he says, like hand-me-down clothes or not getting pocket money. “Me and my twin brother would lie about it, just to fit in. But you don’t think of it as class when you are younger.” His parents remortgaged their house to send him to drama school. He was one of thousands who auditioned for The Wanted in 2010 - “we are 90 per cent from working-class roots”. The band also included Dubliner Siva Kaneswaren, now an actor and producer.

In Blood Flowers, Roofside is run by an Overlord with nefarious motivations. It soon becomes clear that ordinary citizens of Cobbleside are being manipulated and mistreated by the higher-ups who pretend to have their backs. Reading the book, it brings to mind self-serving political leaders such as Boris Johnson. Was McGuiness trying to make a political point?

“I read the UK papers every day, even though I live in LA, and I feel really passionate about what is going on in Britain,” he says. “Even before Covid, I was already annoyed at the government, about the NHS and about the Tories stripping the country of its systems that protect the poorest people. In my mind, every single thing that our government does should be serving the people. I know that comes at great cost but they are collecting a lot of money from people ... These people are clowns, greedy clowns. So I do feel very frustrated by politics at the moment.”

He viewed his first novel as “a safe place” to tease out these political frustrations. “I’m not going to make a misstep. I’m not going to say something wrong about politics or about history. A book is a safe place where I know who the villains are and what their intentions are. It’s a nice place for me to explore that and express those feelings, hopefully not in a way that pisses readers off. The reader is looking for a good outcome, and there will eventually be one, but yeah, I feel quite strongly about a lot of things”.

The downtrodden locals of the lower classes are much of the time intoxicated by a beverage called Ruby Brew. In first drafts, this potent drink was called Calm Wine. Growing up in Newark, he was aware of the role alcohol played in the community. He mentions lively nights at the local Irish centre - his grandmother was Irish - and also the role alcohol played in his time as a pop star, “when you might need a hit of something before doing a red carpet event”.

There was a time, he says, when he used alcohol as “a crutch ... More towards the end of the band, it was definitely more of a crutch than a fun accessory. I feel really grateful that since the band I’ve been involved in some intense shows that required me to be really physically and mentally fit and not rely on those things. I really loved my time in the industry but I could feel what it was doing to me at the time, especially towards the end, when I was struggling with feeling that it was all going to be over”.

It was never going to be one book, and bang, you know? I mean, my heart’s desire is that this is my forever job

When asked about how he is coping after the death, aged just 33, of his friend and former bandmate Tom Parker, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2020, McGuiness becomes emotional and asks to stop the interview for a moment. “I’m a crier,” he says. His silence and tears are more eloquent than any verbal response. It has been barely two years since his friend died. We move on.

Asked what his bandmates think about this new literary departure, he says he was always “the geeky side of The Wanted ... the one other bandmates came to when they needed to write an announcement and make it funny”. They are still in each other’s lives in a supportive way, but while the band came back together briefly in 2020 for their Greatest Hits album, he is noncommittal when asked about any new music or the possibility that they may work together as a band. “We all need to work on ourselves for now,” he says.

His writing debut coincides with a starring role in 2:22 A Ghost Story, a play that is touring across the UK at the moment. “I’m also going to be able to do book signings while doing the play. So I will be doing two of my dream jobs at the same time.”

McGuiness is currently “fleshing out” the next book, keen to consolidate his writing career, a job he’s hoping to be in for the long haul. “It was never going to be one book, and bang, you know? I mean, my heart’s desire is that this is my forever job. And I can hopefully still perform in musicals and plays. Do a show in the evening and write throughout the day. That feels like a gift.”