#Blogtour #Review #Guestpost: Is Monogamy Dead? by Rosie Wilby

Release date - 3rd August 2017
Book length - 320 pages
Publisher - www.accentpress.co.uk
Book Depository - www.bookdepository.com
Amazon UK - www.amazon.co.uk
Amazon US - www.amazon.com

ABOUT THE BOOK

'My favourite way to learn is when a funny, clever, honest person is teaching me – that's why I love Rosie Wilby!' – Sara Pascoe

'Bittersweet, original, honest and so funny.' – Viv Groskop

In early 2013, comedian Rosie Wilby found herself at a crossroads with everything she'd ever believed about romantic relationships. When people asked, 'who's the love of your life?' there was no simple answer. Did they mean her former flatmate who she'd experienced the most ecstatic, heady, yet ultimately doomed, fling with? Or did they mean the deep, lasting companionate partnerships that gave her a sense of belonging and family? Surely, most human beings need both. 

Mixing humour, heartache and science, Is Monogamy Dead? details Rosie's very personal quest to find out why Western society is clinging to a concept that doesn't work that well for some of us and is laden with ambiguous assumptions.

MY REVIEW

It is not often that I delve into non-fiction and I usually stick to history when I do, so I was delighted to try something different when I picked up IS MONOGAMY DEAD? by Rosie Wilby.

Based on her own experiences, detailed research, and plenty of observations of the modern world that we live in, Rosie presents us with an intelligent and often entertaining look at our ever-changing society with evolving ideologies about love and marriage, as well as her own personality, wants, and identity. 

From saunas to sex parties and everything else in between, IS MONOGAMY DEAD? by Rosie Wilby is a thought-provoking, clever and witty read that mixes humour, science, and heartbreak effortlessly together is such a way that will really make you stop and take it all in.  Can the person you fell in love with fifteen years ago really meet your needs now that you are a different person? Is serial monogamy much more suitable to our ever-changing personalities? 
​Regardless of what type of relationship works for you, this book has something for everyone and asks many questions that will make you ponder over what love means for so many in our modern society. 

IS MONOGAMY DEAD? by Rosie Wilby is a fascinating look at all things love from many different stand points and is well worth a read. 

Author Bio:

Rosie Wilby is a comedian, musician, writer and broadcaster based in London. ​
As a comedian, she has performed at Sydney Mardi Gras, The Comedy Store,  Latitude Festival  and on Radio 4.  
As a musician she has performed at Glastonbury Festival, Ronnie Scotts and on Carlton TV.
Rosie writes for a number of websites and national newspapers. She co-wrote and co-starred in short film The Bride and Bride at the 2011 London Lesbian And Gay Film Festival (now touring international LGBT film fests). 
In 2013, she was included in two anthologies - Queer Episodes, published by Little Episodes and It's OK to be Gay, published by Accent Press. 
Other published writing includes The Guardian, The Independent, Diva, Maverick, Time Out, NME, The Pink Paper, Whisperinandhollerin.com, Rainbow Network, Top Magazine, Ham & High, Highbury & Islington Express, Making Music. 

For more information:
Website - www.rosiewilby.com
Twitter - twitter.com/rosiewilby
Facebook - www.facebook.com/rosiewilby

*I want to thank Tibor Jones, Accent Press, and the author, Rosie Wilby, for the opportunity to review this intriguing book and take part in this blog tour. Don't forget to check out all of the other stops along the way!! Read on for a fascinating guest post from Rosie herself...

GUESTPOST

Writing non-fiction

Last July I took the first few chapters of my book Is Monogamy Dead? on the plane with me to Los Angeles. I'd been lucky enough to be offered a place on the LAMBDA writers' retreat with nonfiction tutor Sarah Schulman. 

On the first morning, Sarah gave a guest lecture which taught us more about the craft of writing than I think any of us had learned in years of studying it. She said a quite remarkable thing: 'non-fiction is the story of an idea.' 

That was the beginning of a big rethink about my book. What I'd written so far had the right elements - memoir, comedy, science, sociology, interviews and commentary. Yet they were all thrown together in a fairly fragmented, episodic way. I realised that I had all the tools there to take the reader with me on the emotional seven-year journey I'd been on and give context as to why a monogamous, white, middle-class 'good girl' like me had come to question relationships and how we, in Western society, approach them. 

Sarah drew story arcs on the blackboard, encouraging us to stay true to the form of a novel and a sense of narrative drive even in a non-fiction book. I started to think about how my chapters might end with little cliffhangers that would urge the reader to stay with me and be invested in what was going to happen. I mapped out more logical  pathways through my own actions and ideas. 

I started to think about the sort of books that I enjoyed reading - the immersive quest of a Jon Ronson adventure, the passionate polemic merged with funny memoir of Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman and the powerful, honest intimacy of Juliet Jacques' journey through changing gender in Trans: A Memoir. 

When I returned from LA, I continued writing early chapters out by hand on the a4 yellow notepad I'd been given at the retreat. It felt like my 'magic' notepad. I was able to take it out into my local park and then type everything up in the evenings. I also started to go dating again in something of a quest to find my 'happy ending'. As a comedian, my life and art have always mirrored one another. 

When the book was finished, it was fairly different to the much dryer, less personal proposal that my agent and I had sent to publishers. 

My experience slightly debunks the whole idea of writing a proposal. I didn't really know what book I was going to write ... until I started writing it. 

*My thanks again to Rosie Wilby