Penguin Michael Joseph snaps up 'Mrs Brown’s Boys' creator O’Carroll’s first memoir

Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired world rights to Call Me Mrs Brown, the first memoir by "Mrs Brown’s Boys" creator, writer and star Brendan O’Carroll.

Rights were acquired directly from the author by PMJ head of non-fiction Dan Bunyard, who previously worked with O’Carroll on two tie-in books to the TV series, the first of which, Mrs Brown’s Family Handbook, has, according to the publisher, sold 162,000 hardbacks. Call Me Mrs Brown will be published on 13th October.

The publisher’s synopsis reads: “Born the youngest of 11 children, O’Carroll lost his carpenter father aged 10 and was brought up by his ‘mammy’, an inspirational figure who became Ireland’s first-ever female member of parliament for the Labour Party in 1953 while living in a two-bedroom tenement as a mother of 10 children. 

“Before developing his award-winning TV series, Brendan had experiences as a waiter, publican, radio DJ, novelist and Hollywood scriptwriter. ’Mrs Brown’s Boys’ is one of the BBC’s most popular comedy series. It has regularly attracted record viewing figures for its series and Christmas specials, and is the recipient of a Bafta as well as a five-time winner of the National Television Award for comedy, most recently in 2020 when it beat Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ’Fleabag’ and Ricky Gervais’ ’After Life’ to the prize."

Bunyard said: “It’s been a joy to work with Brendan on his first memoir. It has warmth, tears, surprises and laughs, and just like his extraordinarily popular alter ego, Agnes Brown, a lot of heart. Brendan has a natural gift not just for humour but storytelling, and it’s a talent which shines through on every page.”

O’Carroll added: “In the hustle and bustle of this busy and sometimes complex world of ours we tend to only look forward as that is the direction we are moving.Writing this forced me to look back and relive many of the events and people that I had either forgotten or deliberately locked away in some vault in my mind.

“It has been both refreshing and frightening and indeed at times I have stopped typing to get a tissue. I do hope that Call Me Mrs Brown gives you some insight into my story and that you enjoy reading the story as much as I have enjoyed telling it.”