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Ebury acquires 'groundbreaking' book from intimacy co-ordinator Ita O'Brien
Ebury has acquired a "groundbreaking" book from "pioneering" intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien. O’Brien worked on TV shows and films including Normal People, Sex Education, I May Destroy You, We Live in Time, The Outrun and Gentleman Jack.
Senior commissioning editor at Penguin Press Hana Teraie-Wood acquired world all-languages rights, while working at Ebury, to Intimacy from Chris Wellbelove at Aitken Alexander. Ebury Press will publish in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 5th June 2025, in collaboration with The Dial Press in the US, where Whitney Frick quickly pre-empted North American rights.
O’Brien’s Intimacy on Set guidelines were the first formal framework for establishing safe, respectful and creative conditions for choreographing sex scenes.
In Intimacy, she uses her expertise to explain how the techniques of embodiment and connection that she uses with actors "can offer us all tools for living a more connected, empowered and fulfilling life, both emotional and physical, and both with partners and in our relationships with ourselves". The book also includes behind-the-scenes stories from her work on set.
The synopsis continues: "Intimacy is a call for us to rethink how we navigate ourselves and each other, not just through our words, but through our bodies and actions, too."
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Drury said: "It has been a joy and a privilege watching Ita’s extraordinary book evolve. Her unique expertise, combined with her generosity and her wisdom, have created a beautiful space where ideas about desire, autonomy and connection can be explored with joy and curiosity. When I started working with her on this book, I assumed intimacy meant sex, but what Ita has taught me is that it is so much bigger and richer: a vision of a world in which we can truly learn how to understand ourselves and each other, body and soul."
O’Brien added: "I am delighted to be sharing my field guide to intimacy with readers. It has been incredible to me to witness the impact of the Intimacy on Set guidelines in the entertainment industry and to see the ripple effects of how this professional structure has helped to make authentic and intimate content.
"In sharing this book, my hope is that readers can take the fundamental tenets of the intimacy guidelines into their own lived lives to support their connection to the joy of their own desires and fantasies, and take them into your loving relationships. While I have been writing this book, I have been thoroughly educated and inspired as I have gathered together the amazing wisdom that is out there to support us in opening out to more fulfilling intimate relationships."
