76: Samantha Dooey-Miles on Under the Hammer, dark humour, the housing crisis, and writing morally questionable characters

In this episode of In My Good Books, Susie chats to debut novelist Samantha Dooey‑Miles about her brilliantly dark and funny debut, Under the Hammer.Set in Hamilton in South Lanarkshire, the novel follows Gemma, a woman whose life is falling apart. She’s lost her job, her boyfriend has run off with her best friend, and she can’t afford the rent on her flat. Her only comfort is watching a property TV show about landlords buying and renovating homes, until she begins to wonder whether the landlords on screen might deserve something far worse.In this conversation, Samantha explains how the idea for the novel came to her and how that premise became a darkly comic exploration of the housing crisis, renter frustration, and the pressures that push people to breaking point.Susie and Samantha also talk about the surprising humour in the book, why Samantha didn’t initially realise she’d written a funny novel, and how satire and heightened reality can make serious topics easier to explore.They also discuss Samantha’s journey to publication, including winning a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award, the mentorship that helped shape her writing career, and the unusual path that led to Under the Hammer becoming her debut!Find Sam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthadooeymiles/Buy Under The Hammer: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/under-the-hammer-samantha-dooey-miles/7e069a2eb0588003?ean=9780857309389&next=tBooks recommended in this episode: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/four-stars-a-life-reviewed-joel-golby/7737923?ean=9780008284114&next=thttps://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hermit-a-powerful-debut-novel-about-one-boy-s-journey-into-incel-culture-chris-mcqueer/cd93782e248e8574?ean=9781035409846&next=thttps://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/sky-daddy-very-strange-and-very-funny-guardian-kate-folk/9d13a05242129ab3?ean=9781529372670&next=thttps://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-first-bad-man-miranda-july/1326830?ean=9781838852740&next=t