Acclaimed novelist on seeing her The worst case on overnight

Twenty years after trying

– and failing – to become a screenwriter, Helen Fitzgerald is enjoying the moment.

Thanks to the successful adaptation of The Cry, a prime-time Sunday-night ratings winner, Helen no longer has to write a word before producers are bidding to snap up her latest stories.

Worst Case Scenario, Helen’s first book after The Cry, was the subject of a seven-way bidding war for television rights, while her newest, Ash Mountain, was bought for the screen before she’d even written it.

For Helen, it feels like a full circle, having penned her first book because she couldn’t sell any of her scripts.

“I turned to books in frustration, because I hadn’t come close to getting anything made, so I wrote a book just to enjoy writing after development hell,” she said.

“There are a few writers I know who’ve done the same – not got anywhere in TV and so written books, and then their books are optioned for the screen. I guess that was my plan from the start but it just took a while to happen.”

Originally from Australia, Helen has lived in Glasgow for 30 years, having met her husband, Scots-italian screenwriter Sergio Casci, while both were travelling after graduating from university. They have spent lockdown holed up at home with their daughter, Anna, 23, and 20-year-old son Joe. “We didn’t think we would see times like this again, having all of us together so, although I hate to sound too positive about lockdown, it’s been nice,” she said.

“Anna is a sheltered housing officer in Ayr and doesn’t have her driving licence yet, so we’ve been ferrying her around, while Joe has just sat his second-year university exams. “When I finished Ash Mountain a few months ago, I decided to take some time off to get healthy and look after the house for a while. I just needed to clear my brain, as the last two books have been heavy going.

“I get bored by what I’m doing after a couple of years, including writing. I’d been a social worker since 1994 and had taken time off on three or four occasions to write full-time, but then I’d go crazy because working from home can make you a little antisocial and I needed to get back into the real world.

“I’ve spent periods in both occupations on two or three occasions and I feel really lucky to dip into another job. It helps with my writing, having the real world going on and not just being inside my head.

I find writing a hard job, to sit at home and try to discipline myself, but social work was also really hard, so I won’t do two hard jobs again. I’ll always write, but the next job I take on will be easier and unqualified.”

Having at one point been a social worker in Barlinnie prison before leaving the profession after The Cry’s success, Helen called upon her experiences in the role to write Worst Case Scenario.

While The Cry, which starred Jenna Coleman in the TV adaptation, was a harrowing domestic noir, set in Scotland and Australia, about a missing child, Worst Case Scenario is a darkly comic thriller featuring a devil-may-care prison social worker.