Comic says it's the title she would have wanted when she started to go deaf

Comedian Samantha Baines is writing a book about losing her hearing at the age of 30.

Publisher Headline Home has snapped up the rights to the title, Living With Hearing Loss And Deafness: A Guide To Owning It And Loving It, which will be published in April next year.

It promises a ‘warm and down-to-earth exploration of hearing loss and deafness’, which affects 12 million people in the UK.

Baines will use her experiences to explore how to understand, live and thrive with hearing loss, and the book includes interviews with experts from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, audiologists, deaf activists and people who use and teach sign language.

The comedian – who is an ambassador for the RNID – has previously written two children's books with deaf protagonists: Harriet Versus The Galaxy and The Night the Moon Went Out.

She said of the new book: ‘This is the book I searched for when I discovered that I needed a hearing aid aged 30. I felt so alone, lost in this new world, and when I turned to the words of others for comfort, I couldn’t see myself in the scientific texts available.

It’s my absolute pleasure to be interviewing so many incredible people within the deaf community, as well as sharing my own experiences and pulling together information I’ve learnt so far on my deaf journey.

‘One in five people in the UK have some form of hearing loss and this book is for all of us. Plus, did you know we get a third off travel?!’

Lindsey Evans, publishing director of Headline Home, said: ‘As soon as I read Sam’s proposal I knew I wanted to publish this very important book. She has taught me so much already about what it means to live with hearing loss and I hope this book offers many readers the same.’

As well as her work as a comic – that has included hosting Magic Mike Live London in the West End – Baines is a regular contributor on BBC radio and has written for publications including the Guardian, Time Out  and the Telegraph. As an actress she has appeared in The Crown, Call the Midwife and Silent Witness.

Evans acquired the title from Baines’s literary agent, Jo Bell at Bell, Lomax, Moreton

Published: 9 Nov 2022