Hattie Williams

Hey there! I'm Hattie Williams, and I write the kind of books that make you question whether you should be rooting for these characters... but you'll do it anyway. (Don't worry, I do too.)

I never actually meant to become an author. Growing up in a tiny village in Somerset, I spent most of my time daydreaming during maths class and scribbling stories in notebooks I'd hide under my textbooks. My teachers probably thought I was taking extremely detailed notes – spoiler alert: I wasn't. I was writing about complicated friendships, messy relationships, and all the drama that comes with being young and thinking you know everything (when you actually know nothing at all).

After university, where I studied English Literature (shocking, I know), I worked in publishing as an editorial assistant. Let me tell you, there's nothing quite like reading other people's books all day to make you think, "Hey, I could do this too!" Though it took me three years, two completely scrapped manuscripts, and approximately 847 cups of coffee before I actually finished something I didn't immediately want to delete.

'Bitter Sweet' is my debut novel, and it's basically my heart on paper – bruises, scars and all. It's about those intense friendships we form in our early twenties, when everything feels both permanent and precarious at the same time. You know the ones – where you're sharing clothes, secrets, and sometimes even the same awful taste in men. (We've all been there, right?)

My writing style? Well, I love digging into the complicated bits of relationships – the parts that aren't Instagram-worthy. The messy fights, the unspoken resentments, the way we can love and hate someone in the same breath. I write about real people with real flaws, because perfect characters are boring, and let's be honest, none of us can relate to them anyway.

When I'm not writing, you can usually find me in my tiny London flat, attempting to keep my houseplants alive (current success rate: 40%), binging true crime documentaries (for research purposes, obviously), or trying to convince my cat that my laptop keyboard is not, in fact, the most comfortable spot in the house. (He remains unconvinced.)

I believe in writing stories that feel true, even when they're uncomfortable. The kind that make you stay up until 3 AM, thinking "just one more chapter" until you've accidentally finished the whole book. The kind that stick with you long after you've turned the last page, making you text your best friend to check if you're still okay after that fight last week.

To my readers: expect complex characters who don't always make the right choices, friendships that feel real enough to hurt, and endings that might not be perfectly tied up with a bow – because that's how life actually works. I promise to never give you a story I don't believe in, and to always keep it real, even when real isn't pretty.

If you've read 'Bitter Sweet', thank you. If you haven't, well... what are you waiting for? And if you want to connect, you can find me on Instagram where I post way too many pictures of my cat, my current reads, and the occasional writing update (when I remember to actually post one).

Here's to the messy stories, the complicated friendships, and all of you who keep reading them. ❤️

(P.S. Yes, all my characters are partially based on people I know. No, I won't tell you which parts are real. And yes, my friends are now terrified of ending up in my next book. As they should be.)