Canongate nets 'fierce' memoir from actor and comedian Mackichan

Canongate has acquired My Lady Parts: A life in stereotypes, a "fierce" memoir from actor, writer and comedian Doon Mackichan.

Editorial director Hannah Knowles, who has since joined Faber, acquired world all-language rights in the book from Jo Unwin at JULA. It will be edited by senior commissioning editor Helena Gonda. Canongate will publish in hardback, e-book, and audio in September 2023.

"Through a mash-up of roles played on screen and in theatre running alongside roles played in life, actor Doon Mackichan looks at the stories that we are telling in a culture that profoundly diminishes our power as women, and asks: how do we hold our heads up without fear and say no to the roles that objectify us," the synopsis explains. 

"It is about standing up with courage and saying that vulnerability is okay, but being made a victim is not. It is about one’s choices in an industry that continually wants you to ‘drop the towel’ and reflects on the implications such attitudes have for future generations."

Mackichan’s comedy credits include "Two Doors Down", "Plebs" for which she was nominated for a Bafta, "Toast Of London", "On The Hour", "The Day Today", "Brass Eye", "Alan Partridge" and the Emmy-winning "Smack the Pony", among others.

"I want to encourage people to be the ‘difficult’ one, the one that calls it out, the one that challenges, the one that does it differently," she said. "Don’t be good, don’t be quiet, rules must be broken because until women are equal, society will be broken. Canongate is surprising, radical, life- enhancing, fiercely independent and best of all, Scottish, I couldn’t be more honoured to be under this bird’s wing."

Unwin said: "Doon will do pretty much anything for a laugh, but there are a lot of things she absolutely will not do: her principled feminism has characterised her whole career. It’s the parts she refuses to take, or roles in life she’s been forced to play that make up this fierce and original actor’s memoir."

The publisher said: "In My Lady Parts, Doon cleverly uses the roles she has played on stage, screen and in real life as a framework to examine the ways in which society still expects women to adhere to certain roles in their real lives – and punishes those who don’t. We couldn’t be prouder to be publishing this timely and important book."