YouTube star Caspar Lee writes memoir with mum

Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is publishing YouTube star Caspar Lee's memoir, authored in collaboration with the 21-year-old's mum.

Lee, a British-born South African YouTuber with a 7.6m subscriber-base, and his mum Emily Riordan Lee, announced the book entitled Caspar Lee last night (7th March). It will be released globally on 31st May in hardback and digital formats, priced £16.99.

The premise is that the YouTuber's mum signed a book deal with Penguin agreeing to write his life story - but "luckily" he found out about the book at the last moment. After dashing to the printers "in the nick of time" to make corrections in the margins and over his mum’s text, the "hilarious and heartwarming" book is fortunately able to tell both sides of the story. 

The deal for Caspar Lee was negotiated by Fenella Bates, editorial director at Michael Joseph, who bought world rights from Gleam Futures, Lee’s management company.

Grand Central Publishing bought the US rights and will join Penguin in publishing Caspar Lee on its global publication date in May.

Bates said: “Caspar Lee is a YouTube superstar and we are delighted he’s decided (okay, he’s been forced…) to tell his story in such a unique and wonderful way with his lovely mum Emily. It’s a brilliantly funny book and I know his fans are going to love it.”

Mum Emily Riordan Lee is an Irish author, born in Dublin, who has worked both in journalism and in film and television production. She said: “What an extraordinary journey it's been for me bringing up my children and then getting to write about them! Caspar's life has been unusual, and a little crazy, and I am so proud to be able to share his formative years. It's been such a pleasure for us to work together on this project, and I hope people may learn that even though life can take some unexpected turns, the glass should always be half full."

Lee added: “I’m really pleased to be the only YouTuber who has published a book in the last couple of years… oh wait. In all seriousness it’s been so interesting to hear about all the things my family went through when we were living in South Africa but that I wasn’t aware of because I was too young. Thanks so much to my mum for capturing my life story so far and to everyone who has gotten me to this point."

Lee's self-produced videos, showcasing his "original brand" of comedy and life observation, get an average of 1.7m views each, according to PRH, with the most popular being his 'Best Friend' series featuring Kevin Hart, Chris Pratt and Will Ferrell, which have drawn views of 13m each. He also recently starred with British YouTuber, Zoella's brother, Joe Sugg in a film called "Hit the Road".