Piatkus wins Rudd's Man Down at auction

Piatkus will publish Man Down: Why Men Aren’t Happy and What We Can Do About It by Matt Rudd, after winning the title at auction.

PCR non-fiction publisher Zoe Bohm won UK and Commonwealth rights at auction from Euan Thorneycroft at A M Heath. Publication is set for September 2020. 

Man Down will be an expansion of Rudd’s Sunday Times column “Man Trouble”, for which he won Columnist of the Year at the 2019 BSME Awards.

The book covers the paradox on how men have it better on the outside—better jobs, salary—but on the inside struggle to come to terms with what society expects from them. 

"Part memoir, part manifesto, Man Down will be rich in stories from Matt’s own life, and from the varied lives of many other men he is interviewing."

Bohm said: "I’m thrilled to be working with Matt on a book as important and provocative as Man Down. Male unhappiness is a hugely significant, largely unspoken problem that has implications for men and women alike and what I like so much about Matt’s take on the subject is his strong message that we are all in this together. I can’t wait to work with Matt to bring his huge passion for this topic to readers everywhere."

Rudd added: "I am supposed to say I’m delighted to be working on this project with the excellent Piatkus team and I am. appiness or the lack of it is something men are reluctant to discuss but, as a father of three boys, I want to find a better way. The problem is that a better way undoubtedly involves avoiding the stress, anxiety, false aspiration and work-life imbalance that is at the heart of why so many men struggle. I should be resigning and moving to a fisherman's hut in Denmark, not writing a book as well."