Author celebrates first novel success
"I didn't really read or write when I was growing up. I wanted to be the stereotypical things – an astronaut, an artist, a footballer."
Daniel Wiles, 26, may never have envisioned himself as an author, but the Walsall-born writer has received glowing reviews for his debut novel, Mercia's Take, set in the Black Country.
He was even named as one of The Observer's 10 best debut novelists of 2022, proclaiming his book to be "feverishly compulsive" and a "visceral vengeance quest".
Mercia's Take is an atmospheric deep-dive into the Black Country in the heat of the Industrial Revolution, a world of poverty and smog.
The novel revolves around Michael, a miner from Walsall in the 1870s who is struggling financially to send his son to school.
But one day, he finds a seam of gold down the mines, and his life changes forever.
If he can get the gold out, he can save his and Luke's lives, but his workmate has other ideas.
Daniel, from Pelsall, which is also the hometown of Michael in Mercia's Take.
The novel then moves from Pelsall and Brownhills to other areas of Walsall and Dudley, but Daniel didn't always have the compulsion to write about his hometown.
"I used to write about American things because I liked American crime fiction," he said.
"But as I matured as a writer and read more fiction, I developed a fascination with the local area and its industry."
Daniel started the book in October 2019 as he started his MA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia.
And now he's starting on another historical novel, diving even further back into Britain's history for a story about England after the fall of the Roman Empire.
The 26-year-old said: "There's this traditional narrative that after the Romans left, the country went to ruin.
"So my book asks if that was really true, through looking at a man whose sister goes missing."
Daniel has been on a long journey to the publication on his first novel and is still processing his feelings as it makes its way into bookshops.
"It's a bit weird," he said. " It's been a long time since I finished the novel, put it away, and started on something else.
"So I've already felt the elation of getting published and moved on to another stage. It's a strange feeling."
But having already been earmarked as a promising debut novelist and receiving praise from literary heavyweights like Hilary Mantel, the future looks bright for Daniel Wiles.
Mercia's Take is available in bookshops and online now.
