Becky Hardie, Deputy Publishing Director of Chatto & Windus, bought World English rights in HOW TO HOPE from Juliet Pickering, for publication in 2022 in print, audio and eBook.
We are living in troubled and troubling times and the cumulative effect on our physical and mental well-being is beginning to show. In this new book, prize-winning author and journalist Kerry Hudson sets out to understand why resilience and hope, so often life-saving, can be easily accessed by some but not all of us, and how we can foster these qualities in ourselves and others. Drawing on her own experiences and speaking to a range of experts, including academics and front-line staff, she’ll seek out the best examples of responses to our most common challenges – poverty, housing, work, love and mental health issues – as well as the problems facing the wider world.
From her debut novel TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE-CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA to her memoir LOWBORN (‘should be required reading’ – Sunday Times) and her Pool columns, Kerry Hudson’s work has consistently called to our attention the reality and lasting effects of growing up poor in a broken society. At a time of uncertainty and change, HOW TO HOPE will be a must-read guide to the future.
Kerry Hudson said: ‘Hope and resilience have always been central themes in my books and I couldn't be more thrilled that this new book will allow me to focus fully on these tools which have repeatedly proved life-saving for me. It's also a particular gift to get to write this book at this time, when it feels hope is needed now more than ever.
‘This book also marks a decade of working with a team of brilliant women – my editor Becky Hardie, my literary agent Juliet Pickering and the team at Chatto and Windus and Vintage. They have helped me write the books I dreamed of writing and championed me every step of those ten years. I'm honoured and privileged to be working with this dream team once again.’
Becky Hardie said: ‘This is the perfect next book for Kerry. The response to LOWBORN was overwhelming and she has become a powerful and humane voice in a world that now more than ever needs clear, compassionate and hopeful voices. One of Kerry’s greatest gifts as a writer is getting to the heart of people’s lives and stories, and HOW TO HOPE promises plenty of that, alongside her knack for political and social observation and her own remarkable resilience. We are so proud to be Kerry’s publisher and even discussing the idea of this book gave us all a boost at a very difficult time.’
LOWBORN will be published in paperback on 6th August.
About the author
Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen. Her first novel, TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE-CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA, won the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust First Book Award and was shortlisted for an array of prizes including the Guardian First Book Award and the Sky Arts Awards. THIRST, her second novel, won the prestigious prix Femina étranger. LOWBORN is her first work of non-fiction, and her journey has led to a highly successful column for the Pool. She currently lives in Prague.
Praise for Lowborn:
‘It should be required reading… [Hudson is] a fearless writer, an inspiring woman’ — Jackie Annesley, Sunday Times
‘A book that cuts like a knife’ — Jenny Colgan, Spectator
‘If there were any justice in the world, there would be a copy of Hudson's powerful examination of her impoverished upbringing and why it continues to resonate under every politician's Christmas tree’ — Sarah Hughes, i Books of the Year
‘Compelling, fascinating and well-written, undeniably grim but peppered with humour and tenderness... Hudson demonstrates that only by lifting whole communities out of poverty...can we hope to avoid consigning children and young people like her – vulnerable and blameless – to the worst of lives’ — Kit de Waal, Daily Telegraph
‘Lowborn is in part an indictment of a country that claims to still have a functioning welfare state…Most of all, it is a moving portrait of the survival and eventual flourishing of a remarkable spirit’ — John Harris, Guardian