Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché

Thursday 12 March 2026

This was an enjoyably different and thought-provoking evening, with a different and comfortably capacious venue: The Atrium at the University of Suffolk (UOS). Helen Macdonald is a Suffolk-based poet and author, best known for her nature-writing linked memoir, H is for Hawk, published in 2014. Sin Blaché is a California-born author and musician. Their collaborative novel Prophet which was published in 2023 is the product of work undertaken during Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, when both individuals were grounded.

Helen and Sin described vividly how their partnership arose from a friendship built on Twitter and social media posts, with the idea starting as a novella that was later expanded, with lots of communication using Zoom. Sin spoke of Helen’s writing ‘as insane in terms of description’, while Helen complimented Sin as being ‘phenomenal in terms of doing dialogue’. They elaborated that Prophet is a science-fiction novel that references influences such as the X-files and Dr Who, but eventually became far more.  They wanted the book to be perceived as being in the style of possible fan-fiction, noting that there has been an explosion of such writing on the internet in recent years.

The authors described how the book opens with an American diner appearing in a Suffolk field, followed by other objects. The central characters are Sunil Rao, an M16 agent with a ‘superpower’ ability to separate truth from lies, who is sent to investigate alongside Lieutenant Colonel Adam Rubinstein, a special-forces soldier from the United States. Sin and Helen were keen to explain how mixed up Rao and Rubinstein are, how their relationship becomes a love story and how the book explores various deep themes. They discussed the concept of nostalgia as visualised in the novel and how the Suffolk countryside was used to illustrate episodes in the book. They also offered some intriguing insights into the publication process: for example, some of the scenes had to be cut on language basis, especially after a South African reviewer submitted a list of all the ‘bad words’ contained in the text, showing remarkable attention to detail. 

Future projects were mentioned, with Helen outlining a much delayed and very smelly trip to Midway Atoll off the coast of Hawaii to research a forthcoming non-fiction title about the albatross. Sin is writing a topical horror type novel on the evangelical right in America and the impact that it has on small communities. In response to questions from the audience and our own Josh Winning in his role of interviewer, they coyly admitted to working on Book 2 in the series and that Prophet itself has likely been optioned for television dramatisation.

This unusual evening was made uncanny by the challenge of locating the car parking machine for the UOS car park, which my friend eventually found discreetly hidden in the main building foyer. Another interesting detail was that a member of the audience introduced himself as Sunil Rao, a post-doctoral researcher. He had come from London, fascinated to know how they had chosen ‘his’ name.  We wondered if he was known to Helen or Sin but he wasn’t - just a curious coincidence. 

Janet Bayliss