HarperCollins acquires two from Gill Sims

HarperCollins has acquired world all-language rights to two more books by Why Mummy Drinks author Gill Sims.

Publishing director Katya Shipster struck the deal — which includes the fourth novel in the series, Why Mummy's Sloshed — with Paul Baker at Headway Talent.

The three Why Mummy Drinks titles have sold a combined 545,394 books for £2.6m in the UK, according to Nielsen BookScan, and the author has spent 10 weeks atop the Original Fiction chart. Why Mummy's Sloshed will publish on 15th October 2020.

Gill Sims said: "Almost every mum wrangling a recalcitrant toddler looks at parents with older children and feels an occasional pang of envy for how easy it must be when your children are older, when they don't run amok in the supermarket, when half chewed green jelly babies are no longer spat into your hand and yet still regarded by you as a bonus snack.  

"But as your children grow up, you realise that the episodes involving bodily fluids may lessen, the challenges change, but you are always and forever their mother. I'm thrilled that my new book, Why Mummy's Sloshed, reflects not only on these new challenges that life throws at us, but how we cope (or don't) with muddling through as best we can!"

Shipster added: "Gill is unparalleled at articulating and reflecting back what’s happening more widely — in a way that makes you howl with laughter (and sometimes tears). Mums around the country have frankly been the backbone of getting through this tough period — there has never been a time that we’ve needed to laugh (and drink) more than in 2020, so Mummy’s final, finest and funniest book yet is the tonic everyone needs."