New! 🎉French customers can now choose Mondial Relay for easy and affordable pick-up point delivery! (1/3)

Website orders and inquiries are processed from Monday to Friday (2/3)

📚 Books listed on the website are not necessarily in stock and may need to be ordered 📚 (3/3)

Book background
Book cover of Strong Female Character

Strong Female Character

Nero Book Awards Winner

Fern Brady

16
Coup de coeur
Coup de coeur (Life Events), by Celia
This is an hilarious, honest and heartbreaking memoir from Scottish comedian Fern Brady. After reading about autism as a teenager, Fern knew she had it but because she had boyfriends and could make eye contact, doctor after doctor told her it couldn't be that. She recounts the extreme challenges she faced growing up misdiagnosed and the tumultuous years of homelessness, stripping, meltdowns and misunderstandings from everyone around her. This is a game-changing memoir on neurodiversity and sexism.

BRITISH BOOK OF THE YEAR: AUDIOBOOK WINNER 2024

NERO BOOK AWARDS WINNER 2023

WINNER, NON FICTION BOOK 2023, BOOKS ARE MY BAG AWARDS
SHORTLIST, BOOKSHOP.ORG INDIE CHAMPIONS
SHORTLIST, AMAZON NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
SHORTLIST, GOODREADS CHOICE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Audible Books of the Year 2023
The Times Books of the Year 2023
Apple Best Audiobooks of 2023
BOOKSHOP.ORG Book of the Month January 2024


THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER


'I tore through this hilarious, smart, sad, revealing book' - Bob Odenkirk

'Funny, sharp and has incredible clarity' - Jon Ronson

'An absolute riot. I'm literally going to read it again once I've finished, and I'm a miserable bastard...it's a belter' - FRANKIE BOYLE

'Strong Female Character is a testament to the importance of self-knowledge.' - Rachael Healy, The Guardian

A summary of my book:

1. I'm diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.

2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.

3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.

4. Homelessness.

5. Stripping.

6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.

7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.

8. REDACTED as too spicy.

9. After everyone tells me I don't look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.

10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.

'Fern's book, like everything she does, is awesome. Incredibly funny, and so unapologetically frank that I feel genuinely sorry for her lawyers.' - PHIL WANG

'Of course it's funny - it's Fern Brady - but this book is also deeply moving and eye-opening'
- ADAM KAY

'It made me laugh out loud and broke my heart and made me weep...I hope absolutely everyone reads this, and it makes them kinder and more curious about the way we all live' - DAISY BUCHANAN

'Glorious. Frank but nuanced, a memoir that doesn't sacrifice voice or self-awareness. And it has brilliant things to say about being autistic and being funny' - ELLE MCNICOLL

'A set text for all of us in 2023' - DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE

'Fern is a brilliant, beautiful writer with a unique voice and even more unique story. Astute, honest and very, very funny.' - LOU SANDERS

'So funny and brilliant' - HOLLY SMALE

'Witty, dry, and gimlet-eyed, Strong Female Character is a necessary corrective. Brady offers a compelling, messy, highly resonant portrait of what masked Autism feels like.' - Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism

Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group
Binding: Paperback
Publication date: 11 Jan 2024
Dimensions: 126 x 197 x 26 mm
ISBN: 9781914240478