Bestselling Bolton author Matt Cain returns home with new novel

But the journey behind The Castle of Stories, released on June 4, began much closer to home.

Long before he became a bestselling novelist, journalist, broadcaster and MBE recipient, the Bury-born, Bolton-raised writer was a book-loving boy making regular trips to libraries across the town and dreaming of a future he could not quite see.

His mum was a passionate reader and rarely missed an opportunity to take him to local libraries.

From Tonge Moor and Harwood to Bolton Central Library, their shelves became the starting point for a lifelong love of stories.

Matt said: “I loved reading and I loved telling stories, but I didn’t know how to do it.

“I was from quite a working-class background. My mum and dad were both from council estates and we didn’t know anybody who earned a living from writing or creativity.”

Matt joined by husband Harry Glasstone, mum Lynda Cain and sister, Ruth Dunphy, receiving his MBE. (Image: Matt Cain)

Today, Matt is one of Britain’s best-known LGBTQ+ authors.

Yet as he celebrates the release of his latest novel and prepares to return to Bolton Library this weekend for a special talk, he still remembers a time when a career in books felt impossibly far away.

Matt Cain in Bolton Waterstones (Image: NQ)

After attending St Columba’s Primary School in Tonge Moor, St Gabriel’s CE High School in Bury and later Bury College, Matt gained a place at Cambridge University.

For the first time, he found himself surrounded by people whose families worked in publishing, television and the arts, opening his eyes to possibilities he had never encountered growing up.

“When I was at Cambridge, I met lots of people from different backgrounds, often people who had grown up with parents or relatives in the creative industries,” he said.

“I started to see that it was a possibility.”

Even then, finding a way into those industries proved anything but straightforward.

When he graduated, Matt wrote 211 letters applying for jobs across the creative industries – physical envelopes sent out in the hope that somebody, somewhere, might give him a chance.

Only one company replied.

“That was from a TV production company in Manchester,” he said.

And it was enough. The opportunity launched a career in television production and eventually journalism, where Matt built a reputation as an arts and culture specialist, later becoming Culture Editor at Channel 4 News and Editor-in-Chief of Attitude magazine.

Yet despite carving out a successful career in media, becoming a novelist proved even more difficult.

His debut novel, The Madonna of Bolton, was inspired by his own experiences growing up gay in the North West. But when he tried to get it published, he repeatedly encountered the same response.

“The Madonna of Bolton was rejected over 50 times,” he said.

“What I kept being told was, ‘it’s too gay for a mainstream audience. This is too niche. People won’t connect with it’.”

Having experienced homophobic bullying growing up, hearing that stories like his were not commercially viable, reopened old wounds.

He said: “It rips open those wounds again.

“From when I was growing up and had homophobic bullying and people didn’t like me because of who I was.

“But I never stopped believing in the book.”

Still, he refused to give up and that determination eventually paid off.

Released in 2018, The Madonna of Bolton was successfully crowdfunded and launched the writing career he had dreamed about since childhood.

Since then, Matt has built a devoted readership and become one of the country’s most recognisable LGBTQ+ authors.

His novel The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle became his biggest-selling book, and five years after publication, readers are still contacting him about it.

“I still get messages every day from readers about that book,” he said.

“A lot of women tell me it reminds them of their gay brother or gay uncle who’s not with us anymore.”

Despite its critics, Matt believes social media has played a major role in helping writers connect directly with audiences.

In fact, he believes his career may never have happened without it.

“I crowdfunded my first novel and a lot of that interest happened online,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for social media, I don’t think I’d actually have a career as a writer.”

His latest novel, The Castle of Stories, continues many of the themes that have run throughout his work: family, belonging, identity and the journey towards self-acceptance.

Matt and his husband Harry Glasstone, and dog, Teddy. (Image: The Author’s Lounge)

The story follows 45-year-old Adam, who unexpectedly inherits a farmhouse and castle in Tuscany from a relative he never knew existed.

Leaving Manchester behind, he moves to Italy with his boyfriend Theo and, unexpectedly, Theo’s children in tow.

As renovations begin, Adam uncovers long-buried secrets that force him to confront his past and rethink what family, belonging and queer joy can look like.

The inspiration came from Matt’s own life. His husband, Harry Glasstone, owns a centuries-old farmhouse in Tuscany where the couple regularly spend time with family.

Cain said: “It’s gorgeous and beautiful. It’s falling apart, but it’s so romantic.

“Some of the stones are a thousand years old.”

“When I’m there, I always think about people walking around a thousand years ago and thinking about their own dreams and dramas and passions,” he said.

Family holidays there involving relatives from Bolton and Bury helped shape much of the novel’s emotional heart.

“When I’m there, I always think about people walking around a thousand years ago and thinking about their own dreams and dramas and passions,” he said.

Yet despite the Tuscan setting, Matt insists the story remains rooted in the same themes that have always interested him.

“I always like to write about working-class northern characters,” he said.

“It’s about self-discovery and the journey towards self-love.

“It’s somebody going away thinking they’re escaping, but actually that escape brings them closer to who they really are.”

Alongside promoting the novel, Matt is now focusing on helping other writers find opportunities he once struggled to find.

This week, he opened submissions for Pansy Books, an independent publishing house dedicated to LGBTQ+ authors.

Created in response to what Matt sees as a continued lack of attention given to queer novels for mainstream audiences, Pansy aims to champion LGBTQ+ authors whose stories resonate far beyond a single community.

Husband and business partner! (Image: The Author’s Lounge)

Publishing, he says, can still feel like an exclusive world.

“I’d often be the only person in the conversation who hadn’t gone to a private school,” he said.

“The only person in the conversation with a regional accent.

“I always felt like an outsider.”

Now he hopes to make the path easier for others and his advice to aspiring writers is simple.

“Find out everything you can. Read. Show your work to people you trust. Listen to feedback.

“Don’t let anybody talk you out of it.

“Keep the faith and believe in yourself.”

On Sunday, June 14, Bolton Library will host the author and copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day, with Matt signing books for readers afterwards.

For the boy who once wandered the aisles of Bolton’s libraries wondering how writers became writers, it is a fitting full-circle moment.

There was a time when he could not see a route into the creative industries.

Today, his hope is that others might see that path a little more clearly than he did.

After all, as Matt Cain puts it: “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”

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