Nathan O’Hagan is a British novelist and journalist from Merseyside whose work includes dark comedy, crime fiction, and soccer writing. He grew up in Birkenhead and spent much of his teens and twenties playing in bands before concentrating on prose. His journalism has appeared in publications including FourFourTwo, The New World, Byline Times, Men’s Fitness, and Metro, covering subjects ranging from soccer and popular culture to mental health and current affairs.
O’Hagan’s first novel, The World Is (Not) a Cold, Dead Place, introduced the isolated and acerbic Gary Lennon. He returned to that character in The Last Sane Man on Earth, while Out of the City brought several troubled lives together in Liverpool. His 2026 soccer book, Succession, examines Colin Harvey’s period as Everton manager, combining historical reporting with the recollections and expectations of supporters.
Nathan O’Hagan Books
| Book | Year | Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Succession | 2026 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
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In interviews about his fiction, O’Hagan has described writing alongside paid employment and family life. His early novels draw on the social surroundings of northwest England, particularly Birkenhead and Liverpool. The move into Everton history retains that regional setting while changing the method: documented managerial decisions and interviews replace invented characters, with the club’s recent past viewed through the people who experienced it.
Soccer Books
Succession: Colin Harvey and his Time as Everton Manager: O’Hagan revisits Colin Harvey’s attempt to follow Howard Kendall as Everton manager. Interviews, archives, and supporters’ recollections trace early optimism, transfer decisions, changing expectations, and frustration as the team struggled to sustain its previous success. The account places Harvey’s tenure within the club’s organizational problems and a changing soccer landscape, examining the difficulty of inheriting a successful side whose circumstances were already shifting. Published in 2026.
Harvey had been central to Everton’s achievements before becoming manager, making his position more complicated than that of an outsider arriving at an unfamiliar club. The book considers loyalty to that earlier success alongside pressure to change the squad. Boardroom inertia, tragedy, and Liverpool’s strength across the city form part of the setting in which supporters assessed his work and the direction of the team.
Other Books
The World Is (Not) a Cold, Dead Place: Gary Lennon lives an isolated life in Birkenhead, struggling with depression, anxiety, and hostility toward much of the world around him. His therapist encourages him to find work, bringing him into a call center and uncomfortable contact with other people. O’Hagan uses Gary’s abrasive perspective and experiences at work to explore loneliness, emotional distress, and the possibility of connections he finds difficult to accept. Published in 2015.
Out of the City: Three very different men move through Liverpool: a young skateboarder, a bodybuilder using steroids, and a family man whose professional life conceals troubling behavior. Their stories converge as frustration and humiliation give way to violence. The novel connects private resentments with the city’s varied social settings, building a crime narrative around masculinity, damaged relationships, and the consequences of attempts to assert control. Published in 2017.
The Last Sane Man on Earth: Gary Lennon returns two years after the events of O’Hagan’s first novel, with a girlfriend, a different therapist, and employment that seems slightly more tolerable. His efforts to establish stability collide with familiar anger and a changing political and online world. The reappearance of an old friend unsettles his progress, bringing renewed conflict to a life he has been trying to hold together. Published in 2020.