Fig Tree wins nine-way auction for Ryan’s ‘game-changing take on disability and feminism’

Fig Tree has won a six-figure, nine-way auction for award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster Frances Ryan’s Who Wants Normal? The Disabled Girl’s Guide to Life.

Helen Garnons-Williams, publishing director, signed UK and Commonwealth rights from Diana Beaumont at Marjacq Scripts. Fig Tree will publish it as a lead hardback in spring 2025.

The synopsis explains: “Exploring six facets of life: education, careers, health, body image, relationships and representation, as well as how to survive life’s bumps in the road, Who Wants Normal? is a game-changing take on disability and feminism. Part memoir, part manifesto, and full of Frances’ trademark warmth, humour and honesty (as well as hard-hitting statistics), it will draw on her own experience as well as interviews with around 40 of the world’s leading women and non-binary people with mental and physical health conditions, including Selma Blair, Jillian Mercado, Sophie Morgan, Ruth Madeley, Sinead Burke, Rosie Jones, Fearne Cotton, Jack Monroe, Emma Barnett, Imani Barbarin and Jameela Jamil. Who Wants Normal? will pull the lid off a subject that is too often shrouded in awkwardness and silence, challenging how we think about disability as well as ourselves.”

Garnons-Williams commented: “We are thrilled and proud to welcome Frances Ryan, and her groundbreaking, essential book, to the Fig Tree list. She has a gift for combining wit, empathy, great writing and stiletto-sharp analysis, and Who Wants Normal? is an electrifying mix of memoir, handbook, celebration and call to action, which will offer support, inspiration and a sense of solidarity to the many, many women with disabilities and long-term health issues – as well as opening the eyes of anyone wanting to better understand the many facets of living with a disability.”

Ryan is a columnist and reporter for the Guardian and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature this year. Named the UK’s sixth most influential disabled person by the Shaw Trust in 2021, her work has been featured in lecture halls, the Women of the World Festival, the House of Commons, the National Trust, BBC Radio 4’s “Woman’s Hour” and more.  

Her 2019 début book Crippled (Verso) was shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award 2020, and was made into the drama “Hen Night” for the BBC in 2021. She has been highly commended at both the 2020 and 2019 National Press Awards, shortlisted for the Paul Foot Award 2020 and the Orwell Prize 2019. 

She said: “I’m so thrilled to have found such a wonderful home for this book with Fig Tree, and to get to challenge how we view life for women with physical and mental health conditions today. It’s an incredible feeling to have Penguin put such faith in the book, and for nine publishers to bid for it, and I think that really reflects how titles about disability are finally being recognised as mainstream and vital. I feel like I’m getting the chance to write the book I wish I’d been able to read growing up. It’s a love letter to disabled women and I can’t wait for readers to see it.”

Beaumont added: “I couldn’t be more delighted about this deal. This is such an important, timely topic and Frances is brilliantly placed to write this – it feels like a game-changer. There was so much enthusiasm for this proposal across the board, which was wonderful to see, but in the end the passion and strategic thinking from Helen and the team at Fig Tree blew us away. I can’t wait to see it out in the world.”