Canongate to publish Think Like a White Man

Canongate has snapped up the "definitive self-help gospel on how to understand, overcome and overthrow the White Man", by Penguin WriteNow graduate Nels Abbey.

Canongate senior commissioning editor Hannah Knowles acquired world all language rights from Julia Kingsford at Kingsford Campbell in the satirical non-fiction book Think Like a White Man by Professor Boulé Whytelaw.

Written in the comic persona of a distinguished Professor of Modern White People Studies, Boulé Whytelaw, Canongate said Think Like a White Man is the "self-help gospel" on how to understand, overcome and overthrow the White Man in the whiter-shade-of-pale corporate world.

With lessons on the value of shock and awe, putting compassion on the back-burner and pretending racism doesn’t exist, Abbey has created an "eviscerating satire of modern racial discourse", said the publisher.

Abbey said: "For a black person, heaven is getting paid to write humorous quips about surviving racism. This may be the closest black people get to reparations. I hope you have much more fun reading Think Like a White Man than I did experiencing the sanity-testing situations that helped fuel its creation. I'm immensely excited for the world to meet Professor Boulé Whytelaw and to be working with Hannah and Canongate."

Knowles said: "As one of the white women with a chokehold on the publishing world described in Think Like a White Man, it is an honour to be publishing this distinguished study of the Great White Male. There’s something here for everyone to be enlightened and offended by."

Abbey is a British-Nigerian writer and media executive, and a graduate of the Penguin WriteNow scheme. He was previously a banker. Think Like A White Man is his debut book.