Sarah Perry returns to Essex with first non-fiction title

Serpent's Tail will publish Sarah Perry’s first non-fiction title, Essex Girls: A Defence of Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere, in October. 

Publisher Hannah Westland acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) and exclusive Europe and audio rights from Jennifer Hewson at Lutyens and Rubinstein. The title will be published in hardback and audio in October 2020. Perry will read the audiobook.  

In the book, Perry re-examines her relationship with her home county, Essex, and sets out on an "exhilarating feminist defence of the Essex girl". She looks at figures from Protestant martyr Rose Allin to the abolitionist Anne Knight, sitting them alongside Audre Lorde, Kim Kardashian and Harriet Martineau, to show the reader that the Essex girl archetype is not bound by geography. 

Perry commented: "I have wondered all my life what it means to be an Essex girl, since it was a caricature which seemed to have little to do with me. So I went in search of the real Essex girl, and what I found made me even more proud of my birthplace—and it feels wonderful that for my first non-fiction book I went back home."

Westland added: "Perhaps because she’s a rebellious Essex girl herself, Sarah has often gifted us with fictional characters who challenge ideas about how women should behave. In this brilliantly wide-ranging and fiercely feminist essay, she embraces her native county with both arms, celebrating the many Essex girls past and present who have refused to be quiet or know their place, and helping us to see why we should all allow our inner Essex girls out with pride."

Perry has previously published The Essex Serpent (Serpent's Tail, 2016) which won Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.