Geri Halliwell-Horner’s journey from Ginger Spice to novelist: the ‘Wannabe’ singer on her new novel Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen and the legacy of ‘girl power’ today – interview

Oct 10, 2023

Geraldine Halliwell-Horner is a Spice Girl, author and actress. Photo: @gerihalliwellhorner/Instagram

This iconic Spice Girl is a singer, actress, proud mum and author – who just released her latest young adult novel, Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen, inspired by Anne Boleyn

Ginger rose to fame in the 90s with pop music’s biggest girl group alongside Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Emma Bunton, and counts Adele and Billie Eilish as big fans

In real life and in her new novel, the iconic Spice Girl is all about the power of connection.

Only three minutes have passed since Geri Halliwell-Horner appeared on my computer screen, but that’s all it takes for us to find a groove. The famous redhead, 51, slides into easy chitchat about her six-year-old son’s fascination with the Titanic, evidenced by the Lego model of the doomed ship that sits behind her in frame. She asks for details about my parents and where I grew up; she wonders if I’m married or have any kids of my own. When I reply no, I’m not and I don’t, she smiles and says, “You have plenty of time.”

To the untrained eye, it’s a scene of sweet domesticity: a wife and mother of two offers serene reassurance from her London home among her child’s toys. There’s a flicker of familiarity in her easy chatter that feels like catching up with a family member – if that family member happened to be one-fifth of the bestselling girl group in history.

Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls performs as the group kicked off their reunion tour in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2007. Photo: Reuters

Halliwell-Horner doesn’t actually know me, but like a generation of music fans, I’ve known her for years. She was 23 when the Spice Girls took over the pop world in 1996 with the debut single “Wannabe”. As the quintet’s eldest member, she functioned as the de facto frontwoman and leading purveyor of their “girl power” motto. She was feisty, unfiltered and firmly egalitarian. She even pinched then-Prince Charles’ butt in a major breach of royal protocol. “I pinch everyone’s bottom,” she told Rolling Stone. “Why am I going to stop at the prince?”

Twenty five years after she infamously left the Spice Girls, Halliwell-Horner’s place among music history’s pop icons has solidified: Adele said she used to cosplay as Ginger Spice, and that the singer’s departure from the group was the first time she felt “truly heartbroken”. Billie Eilish recently confessed that she grew up with a “fat crush on Ginger”.

Geri Halliwell-Horner is a pop legend. Photo: @gerihalliwellhorner/Instagram

The woman sitting in front of me on-screen may have swapped her signature Union flag dress and platform boots for a far more businesslike white chiffon top – she only wears white these days – but her commitment to female empowerment was no costume. It shines through in our conversation, as well as in her latest turn as a novelist.

The pivot from pop star to author may not seem obvious, but Halliwell-Horner has always had a reputation for wielding words with passion. “Geri’s brilliant with lyrics,” her fellow Spice Girl Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm told Rolling Stone in 1997, at the height of their fame. The reporter also described her as the chattiest of the group.

For her part, Halliwell-Horner says that writing books was a natural progression from songwriting. “I always just loved storytelling,” she tells me. “They both, to me, are the same.”