A mum flew out to Ibiza for a girls' holiday to make sure her debut novel would be accurate and after feeling she had lost her identity when she had a baby.
Sophie McCartney, a 38-year-old comedian from Allerton, planned in some sunny research for her book Mother Hens about a hen do that descends into chaos. Luckily for author Sophie, her holiday stayed firmly focused on fun.
She said: “I was meant to go before covid. Then, in the middle of writing, we could travel again and I thought I can’t write about Ibiza if I’ve never been there.”
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Soon, she and a friend hopped on a plane, documenting their experiences of sunny beaches, cool bars and parties on social media to the delight of her followers. She said: “I had all these people living vicariously through me. They were saying ‘do it for the mums.’"
As a young mum herself, Sophie was able to channel her experiences through her fictional characters. She said: “When you have kids, you lose a little bit of your identity and suddenly life isn’t all about you anymore. My baby’s six months old, and I can’t tell you the last night out I had."
Mother Hens is centered around Cara Carmichael, whose friend is getting married. The character is longing for an escape from a messy divorce, a chaotic family life and an uninspiring job.
On the novel's plot, Sophie said: “The story is effectively about mums being mums, but there’s more to it than that. Once they step away from their children, this group of friends actually begin to remember a little bit more about who they are and what they want to be moving forward.”
Sophie’s previous book Tried and Tested, a humorous guide to parenthood, was a Sunday Times bestseller. But this was non-fiction, whereas Mother Hens offered more creative freedom.
Sophie said: “You can use characters to talk about things that maybe you would never normally talk about, or you get characters to do things so wild that you know that you would never do that yourself.”
It’s been over six years since Sophie’s first breakthrough in comedy, which came via a parenting parody of Ed Sheeran song, Shape of You.
However, she came very close to not posting the video in what she has labelled as a “sliding doors moment”. She said: “I watched it back and thought, ‘I can’t sing, who do I think I am putting this stupid video on the internet?'"
Sophie only had 50 Facebook followers at the time, which is what persuaded her to risk the backlash. “I thought, ‘worst case scenario, 50 people think I’m an idiot.'"
The video achieved over 17,000 views on YouTube and was reported in the ECHO at the time. On the video’s impact, she said: “I could do this as a job. I was working part-time in PR around my kids.
“It was a risk having a family and bills costing a fortune. But I knew I could do comedy, earn money and pursue a career I always wanted to do."
Social media has been key in Sophie’s journey. She said that there was no chance she would have been able to grow her stand-up career so soon without it.
She added: “Doing my own videos has eased me gently. If I’d have gone from nothing to live stand-up, I don’t think it would have been possible.
“If you had told me 10 years ago I’d be doing live shows, I’d have said ‘no way’.”
Her upcoming live tour is a testament to this, with several shows sold out including at the Epstein Theatre in Liverpool. Sophie now lives in Warrington with her husband and children, but still credits her Merseyside roots as critical to her success.
She said: “There's always been a lot of humour in my family. My dad's always cracking jokes, he’s a typical Scouse dad."
She added: “I’ve never met a boring scouser. Maybe there’s a comedian in all of us, we just need to unlock it.”
Sophie will be launching Mother Hens with fellow comic Sam Avery at Waterstones in Liverpool ONE on March 23. Those present will receive a copy early ahead of its general release date on March 30.
Tickets for the event are available here. Limited tickets remain for her live shows via Live Nation.
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