The debut memoir from a brilliant new voice in non-fiction - gloriously funny, bitingly well-observed and emotionally raw.
People always said I'd find love where I least expected it. I always said they were idiots.
I had no idea how to commit to another human being.
I could barely commit to reading a magazine, and I wrote for magazines for a living. My specialist subject was celebrities, and my own relationships made their marriages look eternal.
I'd never paid a household bill that didn't mention bailiffs, and my idea of exercise was to go and stand outside a famous person's house and stare until I'd convinced myself that I lived in it.
But my life in LA was happy; free of care and consequence. That was, until I came down to earth - with a bump.
So this is the story of how I staggered from partying in Hollywood to bringing up a baby in Piss Alley, Dalston; how I never did find a copy of What To Expect When You Weren't Even Fucking Expecting To Be Expecting, and why paternity testing is not a good topic for a first-date conversation.
About the Author
Sophie Heawood grew up in Yorkshire. She has since lived in Barcelona, working as an au pair, in Hong Kong, working as an extra in Chinese soap operas, and in Los Angeles, where she interviewed the famous and wrote columns on modern life.
She now lives in Hackney, East London, with her daughter. She has written for many publications including The Times, Guardian, Observer and Vogue.
Industry Reviews
It's a deeper, funnier, realer, more poignant Bridget Jones. I have never read a more accurate account of what it feels like to be a parent, especially a single one. I don't think Sophie thinks of herself as being a self-help author but this book will work as self-help for parents. Life is never perfect, it's messy, and it shouldn't be about how to be perfect it's about how to be with the mess. Be more Sophie.
Philippa Perry
The Hungover Games deftly explores expectations of modern womanhood through a beautiful, wild, painfully honest, hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking story. Full of adventure and awe, Sophie Heawood has written a soulful, truthful homage to a life lived with appetite, intensity and wonder.
Dolly Alderton
Finally the book that single mothers across the globe have been waiting for... Funny, dark and true.
Caitlin Moran
Reading The Hungover Games is a bit like having a new boyfriend: you think about it every second you're not with it and long for everyone to go away so that you can just lie down with it and savour its gorgeous, funny rudeness.
Pandora Sykes
A funny, acerbic, sometimes despairing and brutally candid account of accidental pregnancy, single motherhood and how what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, wittier and more resourceful... A must-read for anyone out there, floundering, scared they're doing it wrong. The writing is great in The Hungover Games, but the humour and honesty are even better.
Barbara Ellen * Observer *