Constable snares Sam Delaney’s ‘raw and honest examination of men’s mental health’

Constable has signed Sort Your Head Out: Mental Health Without All the Bollocks by broadcaster and journalist Sam Delaney.

Andreas Campomar, publisher at the Little, Brown imprint, bought world rights from Matthew Hamilton at The Hamilton Agency. Constable will publish on 9th February in hardback, e-book and audiobook.

The publisher’s synopsis reads: “Sam Delaney was a Jack the Lad. He was confident, loud and funny. But when he reached his thirties, work, relationships and fatherhood started to take their toll. Like so many blokes who seemed to be fine, he often felt like a complete failure whose life was out of control; anxiety and depression had secretly plagued him for years and turning to drink and drugs only made things worse.

“Sam knew he needed help – the problem was that he thought self-help was for hippies, sobriety was for weirdos and therapy was for neurotics. It was only when he began to open up that things got better and better. Now he’s written this book to help others do the same."

Delaney is the host of two podcasts: “Top Flight Time Machine” and “The Reset”, the latter of which sees him interview guests such as Seth Meyers, Alistair Campbell and Shaun Ryder about their mental health. According to the publisher it was downloaded more than 100,000 in its first few months and received widespread coverage.

Delaney says about the book: “Like most blokes my age, I have been through some ups and down, including periods where I worked way too hard, drank way too much and let the stress get out of hand. I wrote this book because I didn’t feel there was anyone out there who I could relate to who was sharing similar experiences.

“My story is nothing extraordinary – it’s just about a normal bloke, from an ordinary background, who thought he could go on living the laddish lifestyle forever but then life caught up with him. I wanted to show that you could talk about this stuff without it being deadly dull and serious. I want to normalise conversations about mental health for bloke like me because we seem to be the ones who struggle the most with this stuff. I am really happy that Constable have recognised the importance of this."

Campomar said: “Sort Your Head Out is a raw and honest examination of men’s mental health, without the mawkishness that all too often accompanies this subject area. Sam vividly describes the pressures of being a modern man: how the conflicting duties of career, fatherhood, marriage and being an absolute legend down the pub can conspire against you.”