The news is out! We are thrilled to announce that UK and Commonwealth rights to Staunch, Eleanor Wood’s first non-fiction title, have been acquired by senior commissioning editor Kate Fox at HQ. Honest, funny and poignant, Staunch follows Eleanor as she journeys to India with her grandmother and two great aunts in the wake of a painful break-up. As she spends time with the older women in her family, in the country they fled over fifty years before, Eleanor learns what it truly means to be staunch. The book will be published in March 2020 in hardback, ebook and audio formats.
HQ said: “Staunch explores how Eleanor found herself in her late 30’s on a beach in India with her octogenarian grandma and two great aunts, on a quest to find herself like some kind of middle-class cliché. Whether it was her traumatic break-up, her family falling apart, a series of disastrous rebound relationships or a psychotic episode that led her to this point, it’s hard to know. But through the stories of the vivid, worldly older women in her family, Eleanor discovers what it means to be staunch in the face of true adversity.”
Kate Fox said:“It’s rare that you find a book that deals with family history, relationships and some serious psychological issues so relatably and hilariously, you laugh out loud on the train. Eleanor’s story is truly inspirational, and is wound through with three generations of her family in a way that will make you feel like you’ve taken a holiday with these incredible women too.”
Eleanor said: “I have tried to write the sort of book that would have helped me when I was in the depths of existential despair. And I want to pay tribute to the staunch women in my family who helped me out of it. I’m delighted that it’s turned out to be a relatable topic, and I am so excited – and a little bit terrified – about it being released into the world.”
Eleanor Wood is the author of YA novels Becoming Betty and My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend (Macmillan Children’s Books). Her work has been published in various magazines and on websites, most recently Elle magazine. Her erstwhile lo-fifanzine, Shocking Blues and Mean Reds, won praise from the Independent, Lauren Laverne, and Marmalade magazine, among others. She lives in Brighton, blogs about music (among other things), has a Leonard Cohen tattoo and would like to get a cat, but isn’t sure she can handle the commitment.