Bluebird wins auction for Frostrup and Smellie's 'landmark' menopause book

Bluebird has won a multi-publisher auction for a “landmark” book on the menopause from Mariella Frostrup and Alice Smellie.

Publisher Carole Tonkinson acquired world rights in all languages excluding the US and Canada to Menopause: A Survivor’s Guide from Natasha Fairweather at RCW Literary Agency. It will be published in hardback in autumn 2021.

Bluebird said it would be “a landmark publication, breaking through the longstanding taboos around menopause to equip women with the up-to-the-minute information they need to take charge of their health and manage challenges, all leavened with encouraging and amusing personal anecdotes, and even a few cartoons.” The book builds on Frostrup's BBC documentary “The Truth about the Menopause”.

The synopsis explains: “Structured partly around Mariella’s own experience, Menopause: A Survivor’s Guide will put to rest stereotypes, explore treatment options including HRT, discuss lifestyle changes, sleep struggles, workplace issues and much more, as it debunks the myths and returns power to the women experiencing it. It will balance out the shocking lack of education and support (most medical training barely touches on the subject and HR departments virtually ignore it) to help women stay active, earning and enjoying all life has to offer.”

Tonkinson said: “I have been looking for a book to publish on this subject for years—one that doesn’t condescend to the reader by suggesting a bit of lavender and positive thinking is the answer. Mariella tells it like it is, and her fabulous, funny, charismatic voice, informed by rigorous research, is just what women need to navigate this life altering episode. It’s shocking to think that a tiny fraction of time is spent equipping GPs, HR managers and more on how to deal with a physical fact of life that 50% of the population will experience. This book is a gamechanger and we can’t wait to get to work with Mariella and Alice to spread their message far and wide.’

Frostrup is an arts broadcaster, writer, presented "Open Book" for two decades for BBC Radio 4 and is now one of the main presenters on Times Radio. Co-author Smellie is a journalist whose work has appeared in the Daily Mail, Telegraph and Marie Claire.

Frostrup said: “Menopause has been attracting fake news since the beginning of time. We’re so excited to be joining Carole’s award-winning team at Bluebird, who will be instrumental in helping us to bring the subject out of the dark recesses to which it has been relegated, and into the hands of an eager audience. This badly misrepresented and misunderstood third phase in women’s biological evolution is long overdue exploration, reinvention and celebration. Alice and I are eager to start that conversation with what we hope will be a funny, liberating and illuminating study of attitudes, case studies and cures past, present and future.”