This short feature is with the lovely Rosie Wilby.
Rosie is an award-winning comedian who has appeared on BBC Radio 4 programmes including
Woman’s Hour, Saturday Live, Four Thought and Loose Ends, TV shows including Good Morning Britain, podcasts including The Guilty Feminist and in the finals of several major comedy competitions. She has performed at Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Green Man, Wilderness, Port Eliot festival, How The Light Gets In and Latitude and has had articles published in The Sunday Times, the Guardian, New Statesman, Cosmo and more.
Her first book Is Monogamy Dead? was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize and followed her TEDx talk of the same name. In 2018, Rosie created The Breakup Monologues podcast, which is available on iTunes, Spotify and all good podcast platforms and also the name of her second book which I am talking about with her below.
Andy N:
I know the breakup monologues started off as a Podcast series, can you tell us about where this came from?
Rosie:
The Breakup Monologues podcast launched in early 2018, inspired by a trilogy of comedy shows about the psychology of love and relationships that I had toured around the world over the last decade or so. The trilogy began with a show called The Science of Sex and ended with a show called The Conscious Uncoupling. This last show was all about my breakup story.
After the show, friends and fellow performers would chat to me about their own breakup stories. So I decided to start a live chat show where other people shared their stories with me and we compared notes about how we had recovered from heartbreak and the more bizarre things we had done in failed attempts to woo partners back and so on.
I was working on the age old premise that tragedy plus time equals comedy. When the live show started going really well, I decided we should record the conversations for a podcast.
Andy N:
And what has now made you want to develop this further as a book?
Rosie:
The idea of writing a second book was always in the back of my mind. I’d already written one called Is Monogamy Dead?
That was based on the middle part of the aforementioned trilogy.
It made sense to continue writing about relationships and follow that one up.
Andy N:
How did writing you new book compare to 'Is Monogamy Dead?'
Rosie:
The new book, The Breakup Monologues, follows a similar sort of narrative nonfiction format where my ideas and discoveries about the real science underpinning how our relationships work (and sometimes don’t) are embedded within my own story of trying to apply this learning in my real life. The first book ends with me meeting my current partner.
Andy N:
Was your new book a easier book to write?
Rosie:
In some ways, the second book was harder to write because I’m writing about a relationship that I’m still in and one that I want to stay in. But one that I also want to write about critically. Relationships are really hard work once the initial honeymoon phase is over. And I wanted to represent that realistically.
Many times it can feel like it would be so much easier to break up and walk away. But then you remember that you have built something really important with someone you love and trust and you should probably stay.
Andy N:
What plans do you have next?
Rosie:
It’s been a bit hard to make concrete plans during a pandemic because so much of what I’ve traditionally loved doing professionally involves performing onstage in front of an audience. As outdoor events start to happen again this Summer,
I’ll be touring the live version of the podcast to some of those. Cambridge Comedy Festival and Primadonna Festival are confirmed so far. Eventually I hope to write another book.
But, realistically speaking, there’s at least a year of hard work to do promoting this one before I can think about that.
Andy N:
Where can people find this book?
Rosie:
People can buy the book from all good bookshops, either online or in person. If your local bookshop doesn’t have it, then they will be able to order it. Alternatively you could ask your local library to get it. As well as the hardback and the kindle versions, I have also narrated an audiobook.
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