Nadiya Hussain finds her voice with Headline

Nadiya Hussain is publishing a new narrative non-fiction book called Finding My Voice, exploring the many different roles assigned to her by gender, culture, society and religion.

The book will publish in hardback in October 2019, after Lindsey Evans, publishing director at Headline Home, bought world rights from Anne Kibel at A K Artist Management.

In the book, devoting each chapter to a different role, Hussain will write about all of her various identities: from 'daughter' and 'sister', as part of a large family growing up in Luton, to 'devout Muslim', while culturally torn between two countries, and, on entering an arranged marriage, 'wife' and 'mother' herself. It will also cover her thoughts on becoming a celebrity after winning "The Great British Bake Off", with the later chapters covering her more recent roles of 'baker', ‘Twitter handle’ and ‘TV presenter’.

According to Headline, the "very personal" book documents Huassain's journey "from girl to woman, from daughter to mother, from shy baker to national treasure" with "warmth, humour, honesty and deep emotion about what each [role] means to her and how she embodies all the different expectations of them in her life".

The publisher added that, in this way, she hopes to shine a light on the challenges that many women, no matter who they are or where they live, have to deal with in order to be accepted or heard.

Hussain said: "In the current climate of female empowerment, this is such an important book for me to write. Many girls, myself included, grow up being told ‘you can’t’ over and over again. I want to show that you can. That girls do matter. In all walks of life, in all religions, in all cultures.

"It’s probably going to make people feel uncomfortable, but it’s real. I want my daughter to have the choices that I didn’t have whilst growing up, as all girls should. I also wanted to shine a light on issues that I didn’t fully understand as a child – to understand what my parents went through as they got used to living in a new country and to see things through their eyes."

In publishing the book, Headline will be working closely alongside the Hachette Children’s Group, who already publish Hussain's Bake Me a Story series and are launching her debut picture book in October 2019, My Monster and Me, illustrated by Ella Bailey. 

Other recent book projects for Hussain have included the recipe collection Nadiya’s Family Favourites, which published with Michael Joseph over the summer to tie in with her BBC2 series, and working on contemporary women’s fiction for Harlequin.