1. HI MATT TELL ME HOW YOU GOT STARTED?
When I was younger I was an actor and I was lucky enough to get roles in ITV1’s ‘Heartbeat’, ‘The Royal’ and three-part drama, written by Sally Wainwright called ‘Unforgiven’.  Then when I was 19, I set up my first business called Tribute Acts Management and that has now grown to manage and represent 500 acts. I have also toured Europe in my Take That Tribute Band called Rule The World and we have been featured on the Graham Norton show with the real Take That. Gary Barlow called us brilliant, which is quite a big compliment and we were massively taken aback by it! In recent years, I have gone on to become a mindset and business coach, break a Guinness world record and even compete in a bodybuilding competition. My biggest passion now is my podcast ‘Success School’ where I am

focused on making a real positive impact to help as many people as possible to live happier, healthier and more fulfilled lives. 

2. WHAT WAS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
As a kid, I was always very ambitious and when I got to age 27 I found myself totally burnt out from years of pushing myself and I started questioning the “hustle culture” we’ve all become so exposed to online. I then went on a real journey of self-development with a focus on trying to figure out what truly makes us happy and fulfilled people. Once I started to make some great changes in my life, it became a real passion to help other people do the same.

3. WHAT IS YOUR BEST ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR?
I’m very proud of all the achievements that I have accomplished over the years, including the Guinness world record, Brit finalist bodybuilding invite, and of course the TV opportunities I’ve taken. But I would honestly say my best achievement is learning to truly be happy with who I am, put myself out there publicly as my authentic self and have the courage to push myself to truly make a difference in other people’s lives. There’s nothing more fulfilling than knowing that you have genuinely helped somebody who was struggling.

4. HOW DO YOU START YOUR DAY? / WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR MH?
I generally like to start the day by getting outside into fresh air, putting on a motivational podcast and getting my steps ticked off. I think it’s really important to set your mental and emotional state for the day and not just be led by emotion and on autopilot.

5. WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER BEEN GIVEN?
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When asked about the New Writers’ Prize, he tells me he first heard about it on the radio and when confiding in a friend about their entry a few days before the deadline “…she was like, you have to send this in! Like, this is really good. And I think if she hadn’t said that, I probably wouldn’t have done it, so I owe her a lot”. The doctor was “completely blown away” and said, “I still have moments where it has not really settled in”.

Discussing his debut novel ‘People Like Us’, now to be called ‘Sunstruck’ , Will revealed “…it was about the characters and just how kind of vibrant they felt” that made his entry stand out against almost 1,000 other entries submitted. He goes on to tell me more about the book; following two young men in the South of France who meet and fall in love whilst on holiday and how that bond is tested when they return back home in London. One of the men is mixed race, working-class, whereas the other is white and from a well off London based family.

“…I draw a lot from some of my experiences of dating, but also just of like, being a person of colour in quite white spaces, which is something that I think most people of color in the UK experience to some degree, and trying to find the point of human connection in those, like, quite fraught spaces. I guess it’s come from a thought experiment, on how to bridge those gaps and love across things like race and class. And it’s just about how, whether or not it’s strong enough to overcome those very structural things because love feels so organic in some ways, but then, now there’s all of this structure around it”

Hunter mentions there will be points of reference to black culture – specifically Jamaican culture and hopes these points will hit home with readers who can relate. “There are also some really universal points about how you love and how you feel loved by someone who is different to you, that will appeal too”.

I asked whether or not Will feels any pressure regarding being a prize winner to which he responded by commending other successful candidates of the #MerkyBooks Prize: “I’ve seen how the previous winners’ books have done and their writing really speaks for itself and I hope mine does as well”.

Exploring the writer’s other successes, studying Medicine and earning a Master’s in Clinical and Forensic Psychology at Newcastle University, he describes how he thrives on having a busy schedule and therefore enjoys incorporating all socializing, writing and studying into his life.

He vocalises the ups and downs of working in Accident and Emergency starting in December 2019. “You are taking on a lot of emotion, and I find it quite hard to separate myself from the patients’ emotions. So I find it a very emotionally taxing job”. On the other hand, Will explains how rewarding it was “…seeing the change in someone from them being anxious and afraid when they come in and being more reassured and feeling safer when they leave.. I found that amazing”.

Although Will has taken a step back from A&E and is focusing more on writing, he refers to feeling “really lucky to be a queer black person. I think those parts of my identity allow me a level of empathy with other people who are struggling in so many different ways… I could understand them (patients) better. I could be kinder. I understood feeling scared, and I understood feeling ashamed”.

Whilst conversing about the lack of representation for strong queer and/or black leads in media, books, public figures, etc., Will shares that a “big inspiration of mine is a writer called Caleb Azuma Nelson…I really loved Queenie by Candice Carty Williams. I think it’s like an excellent book” and also talks about how he “grew up reading a lot of Zadie Smith”. They discuss how they feel lucky to be a part of #MerkyBooks as they’re now included in this new wave of black British writers that the industry is starting to notice.