“Smart, funny, and driven by unforgettable characters whose opinions and actions leap off the page, this is a must-read. ”
“ With exquisite storytelling and unforgettable characters, The Calamity Club is a joyful, heartbreaking, heartwarming read. ”
It has been 17 years since Kathryn Stockett’s The Help was published - selling 1 million copies in the UK, 15 million copies worldwide and translated into 38 languages.
Now, Stockett returns with The Calamity Club — a triumphant, big-hearted novel from one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.
The Calamity Club
by Kathryn Stockett
Fig Tree | Hardback Fiction | Publication date: 21 May 2026
Kathryn Stockett will be in the UK on publication and available for interviews and events.
“You give a girl a taste of fresh air and then you take it away—she’ll grow fierce and wild to get it back.”
Oxford, Mississippi, 1933.
Eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one.
Ever since her beloved mother failed to come home last Christmas Eve, she’s been one of the “unadoptable” big girls at the town’s orphanage where she fights each day to keep her wits sharp and her spirit unbowed.
When she meets Birdie, a young woman set on confronting the socialite sister who believes she’s left her impoverished family behind, for the first time in a long while it seems someone else might care about Meg’s future.
But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s charmed life is balanced precariously upon a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman haunted by loss who has been pushed to the brink with nothing left to lose.
Drawn together by circumstance, they find unexpected kinship among a disreputable, determined band of women. But in a town steeped in hypocrisy, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences…
“I’ve only managed to write two books, but in both, I’ve had the same intention: What happens when you put together a group of strong-willed, scrappy women, all with a rich sense of humor, all at the end of their rope, in a place as complicated and colorful as Mississippi.
There is no lifeboat coming for these women, no husbands, no fathers, certainly no government programs coming to save them. Everyone expects these women to fail.
And out of this, sparks a terrible, awful, glorious idea.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. Her first novel, The Help, has sold over 1 million copies in the UK and 15 million copies worldwide.
· The Calamity Club Publication will be a landmark international publishing event
· Rights to The Calamity Club have sold around the globe – 20 territories and counting
· The Help has been described variously in the press as “a big, warm girlfriend of a book” (The Times), “unputdownable” (The Sunday Times) and “an astonishing feat of accomplishment” (Daily Express). It has amassed nearly 250,000 reader reviews across platforms with an average rating of 4.5 stars
· The Help was adapted into an acclaimed film starring Emma Stone, Viola Davies, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain
For further information please contact:
EMMA FINNIGAN PR
07870 210468 | emma@emmafinniganpr.co.uk | @emmafinnigan | www.emmafinniganpr.co.uk