Hannah Begbie has made the switch from comedy agent to novelist, penning her first book for HarperFiction. Hannah’s book is called Mother and tells the story of Cath, who discovers her newborn daughter has a deadly illness. The plot was inspired by Hannah’s own experience of giving birth to a son with cystic fibrosis. At a parental support group, Cath meets a father, Richard, who is in a similar situation and who promises a cure for their children.
Hannah said: “The idea for the story began with the painful experience of having my newborn son diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. However, as I developed the story into fiction, the scope of the novel broadened to explore themes of identity and motherhood, adultery, grief and redemption achieved at a high price.”
Hannah was an agent at United Agents where, for 15 years until December 2014, she represented BAFTA and Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning writers and comedians. She developed the manuscript for Mother whilst studying at the Novel Studio course at City University in London and went on to win that year’s new writing prize.
Martha Ashby, editorial director at HarperFiction, told trade website The Bookseller: “Hannah’s writing grabbed me by the throat from the very first page and in her brutal examination of the roles that women play, her novel is at the same time both raw with emotion and deeply thought-provoking.”
Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates describes Mother as “a book you don’t forget in a hurry: unflinching, dark and deeply compelling, it moved me profoundly”.
Mother will be published next August, and can be ordered here.
