Hodder Studio acquires Taylor's 'wickedly honest' account of motherhood

Hodder Studio will publish Ellie Taylor's memoir My Child and Other Mistakes: How to Ruin your Life in the Best Way Possible next summer. 

Publisher Myfanwy Moore bought British Commonwealth rights, including Australia and New Zealand, from agent Sophie Chapman at 42. The memoir will be published in trade paperback, e-book and audiobook on July 15th 2021. 

Taylor is stand-up comic, broadcaster and actress. Her memoir will share an "honest, hilarious and moving" account of motherhood. Taylor will write candidly about her personal experience exploring the decision to have a baby when she doesn't even like them, the importance of cheese during pregnancy, why she took hair straighteners to the labour ward, plus the "apocalyptic" newborn days, childcare, work and the impact on life and love and "most importantly", her breasts, says the publisher. 

Moore said: "I’m delighted to be working with the funny and never knowingly maternal Ellie Taylor on her first book, which is a wickedly honest and hilarious look at being at the frontline of early parenthood."

Taylor commented: "I am thrilled Hodder Studio are letting me write a book about my two specialist subjects—me and my heir. Becoming a mother has been the most transformational, brilliant, horrendously awful thing I have ever done and I feel incredibly passionate about sharing honest accounts of pregnancy, birth and life with a ratbag child. Now at least, when I walk past a pregnant woman I can just hand her this book rather than my standard reaction—embracing her tightly as I whisper in her ear. ‘You’ve ruined your life, but in the best possible way’."

Taylor is a regular on BBC 2's "The Mash Report", she is featured on Netflix's "Comedians of the World" series and also hosts her own Radio 4 show "Ellie Taylor's Safe Space". She also co-presents the podcast "Ellie and Anna have Issues".