Comedian, writer and podcaster Rosie Wilby is set to have her second book published. Sharing its title with her podcast, The Breakup Monologues follows Wilby’s first book Is Monogamy Dead?
In 2011 Wilby was dumped by email and while she was able to assuage the pain by correcting her now ex’s spelling and punctuation, an obsession with breakups was born. Wilby embarked on a quest to investigate, understand and conquer the psychology of heartbreak.
That quest proved to be a creatively fertile one, resulting in the acclaimed podcast The Breakup Monologues. Wilby asked her fellow comedians on the circuit about their experiences of romantic disaster and recovery, thinking, “if one group of people have become adept at learning from catastrophe it is comedians. The worst onstage deaths are the performances that enlighten us most about how to improve.” She wondered if comics had been able to transfer this ‘fail better’ logic to love.
The Breakup Monologues is a love letter to Wilby’s breakups, a celebration of what they have taught her peppered with anecdotes from illustrious friends and interviews with relationship therapists, scientists and sociologists about separating in the modern age of ghosting, breadcrumbing and conscious uncoupling. Her plan is to assimilate their advice and ideas in order to not break up with Girlfriend, her partner of nearly three years.
Will this self-confessed serial monogamist, and breakup addict, finally settle down?
The Breakup Monologues will be published by Bloomsbury in June 2021.
