“In my earliest memories, my mother would stand in front of me with a beer or vodka”
Douglas Stuart grew up in poverty with an alcoholic mother and became a sought-after fashion designer. Today he writes novels – and has achieved worldwide success with his debut.
“You didn’t do so well in Glasgow as a gay man who had to work hard in a coal mine.” Here is Douglas Stuart, 45.
Photo: Eric Tanner
Douglas Stuart’s debut novel “Shuggy Bane” was published without much ado in February 2020, initially selling slowly until it surprisingly won the famous Booker Prize in November and was released in the United States and Great Britain. The bestseller list came by storm.
The novel has now been translated into thirty-eight languages, including German. More than a million copies have been sold, says forty-five-year-old Scotsman Douglas Stuart, who reports via video from his apartment in New York.
She left her previous job as a fashion designer for brands such as Calvin Klein and Gap and from autumn 2017 devoted herself entirely to writing. The book was inspired by the tragic story of his mother, who was addicted to alcohol. As he is talked about, you realize just how deep Stuart’s grief is. Sometimes his voice breaks, he has to try to complete his sentences.