Comedian's endometriosis memoir to Hodder

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired a memoir from comedian and writer Eleanor Thom about endometriosis, a chronic condition affecting the lining of the womb, intended to help fellow sufferers.

The condition is said to affect one in 10 women, with approximately 1.6 million sufferers in the UK alone.

Thom's book, Private Parts: How I Learned to Live Well with Endometriosis, aims to be a "cheerful" and "inspirational" guide for people with endometriosis who need support to help them live well with the disease. Its author has lived with the illness for over 15 years, having been diagnosed at the age of 17, and has had nine operations to date to treat the illness.

Hodder editorial director Melissa Cox acquired UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights from Zoe Ross at United Agents to publish the book in spring 2019. 

Cox said Thom's "part-memoir part-guidebook", told in the comedian's "warm, funny style" would be "a ray of sunshine and hope" for sufferers. 

“Endometriosis is a serious condition affecting a huge number of women who find that the illness impacts many areas of their lives; from fertility and relationships, to careers and social life and beyond. It is isolating, painful and often has serious ramifications for the mental health of sufferers, not least because a lot of the treatments involve hormones," she said.

"Upon all this, I think Eleanor’s book is going to be a ray of sunshine and hope. Part-memoir, part-guidebook and all told in her warm, funny style, this should be the book that girls and women can turn to for comfort – but also hand over to friends and family who are struggling to understand the disease.”

Thom said she believed sharing stories was "a vital lifeline when coping with a disease like this" and that she hoped her book would be both empowering and reassuring for people going through the same thing. 

"I’m delighted to able to make something useful and positive from my experience and I hope it will empower other women suffering from it and increase awareness about this condition," said Thom. "I’m excited to bring coping strategies, humour, expert knowledge and interviews with some amazing women all together in one place for the first time. So much of what surrounds this disease is dark and depressing but I hope my book will be an ‘endometriosis happy place’ (if this can be a thing), a place of reassurance – a suit of armour for other women going through similar experiences.”