The Hungover Games

Heawood writes with warmth and wit about life as a single mother.

Rachel Cooke, Observer, *Books to Look Out For in 2020*

Beautiful, wild, painfully honest, hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking... 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

Thought-provoking and insightful.

Metro

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

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.

Philippa Perry

I adored this debut memoir... Freewheeling, hugely funny... and genuinely soul-mining.

Caroline Sanderson, Bookseller *Editor's Choice*

Raw and funny, Heawood’s memoir celebrates the messiness of life and motherhood with boldness, panache, and unexpected moments of real poignancy. An uncensored and eccentric delight.

Booklist

Rejoice! One of our favourite journalists Sophie Heawood – known for her hilarity and honesty – publishes her first book this year. It's a memoir about being a single mother when you haven't quite worked out how to look after yourself.

Arielle Tchiprout, Red *The best books we can't wait to read in 2020*

Beautiful, laugh-out-loud, honest and, on occasion, heartbreaking.

Sophie Cockett, Glamour

Frank and fearless... a glorious validation to all parents doing it solo.

Sarra Manning, Red

Honest, moving and funny... Brilliant... [Heawood] has written a tender book about parental love that she and her daughter should be proud of.

Susannah Butler, Evening Standard

Hilarious... It is a charming, diverting, indie flick of a memoir, a joy to gulp down.

Alice-Azania Jarvis, The Times

Achingly tender and snort-inducingly funny.

Sarah Hughes, i, *Summer Reads 2020*

Gorgeous, unflinching, tender, sad, affirming and cackle-worthy. You don't need to be a mother, have one in your life or hope to become one, for the razor-sharp observations chronicled here to ring true.

Jemma Crew, Northern Echo

Ebullient, playful and creative... By turns caustic, astute and very, very funny.

Tanya Sweeney, Irish Independent

[Heawood] shares her story with huge wit and sharp observation.

Hannah Stephenson, Irish Examiner, *12 of the best new reads for summer*

Joyfully crude and hilarious... Heawood is refreshingly unapologetic.

Eleanor Halls, Daily Telegraph

Sharply observed and funny... Indecently entertaining... Beautiful.

Fiona Sturges, Guardian

Hits that sweet spot between laugh-out-loud funny, with its accounts of first dates, LA wackiness and personal mishaps, and a lyrical lament for a life of paternity tests, an absent father and the absence of raves.

Eithne Farry, Sunday Express

Unflinchingly honest, emotionally raw, and surprisingly sweet.

SheerLuxe

This is the first time I've read anything about motherhood that didn't bore me... It's all really unconventional but laugh-out-loud funny.

Sara Pascoe, Observer

Funny, acerbic, sometimes despairing and brutally candid... 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

Outrageously entertaining.

David Nicholls, i Newspaper

A tender and hilarious account of her life as a single mother.

Sophie Morris

As funny as it is moving, The Hungover Games is a gorgeous read.

Anna Bonet, Good Housekeeping *20 of the Best Nonfiction Books*

This [is an] incredibly candid and often LOLs memoir about how it feels to raise a baby on your own when you're more into negronis than nappies.

Cosmopolitan

Brilliantly bawdy and movingly tender. A warm, generous and hilarious read, it's also a great listen: 2020 was the year I got into audiobooks and this one, read by the author herself, had me guffawing in public.

Lynn Enright, Irish Times *Books of the Year*

Reading Heawood's often outrageous and occasionally undignified anecdotes was the perfect tonic during the second national lockdown. Though hilariously funny, her story of accidental pregnancy is also tender and poignant, with her accounts of motherhood feeling far less common through a single-parent lens.

Independent

A tender and funny account of single parenthood

Guardian

Packed with humour and honesty, it's also tender, moving and relatable, detailing Heawood's own evolution and growth alongside her young daughter's, and the highs and lows of solo parenting.

Harpers Bazaar