The Breakup Monologues: The Unexpected Joy of Heartbreak

by Rosie Wilby

Publisher:

Green Tree

, 2021

Overview

’piercingly honest… witty… wonderful’ - The Observer

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

’Funny, sweet, entertaining, insightful, life-affirming...’ – Viv Groskop

’Hilarious, honest and brilliant’ – Helen Thorn

’Rosie Wilby unearths the hope and hilarity that can come from heartbreak’ – Abigail Tarttelin

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In 2011, comedian and podcaster Rosie Wilby was dumped by email... though she did feel a little better about it after correcting her ex’s spelling and punctuation.

Obsessing about breakups ever since, she embarked on a quest to investigate, understand and conquer the psychology of heartbreak.

This book is a love letter to her breakups, a celebration of what they have taught her peppered with anecdotes from illustrious friends and interviews with relationship therapists, scientists and sociologists about separating in the modern age of ghosting, breadcrumbing and conscious uncoupling.

Mixing humour, memoir and science, she attempts to assimilate their advice and ideas in order to not break up with Girlfriend, her partner of nearly three years. Will this self-confessed serial monogamist, and breakup addict, finally settle down?

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Key Features

Written by award-winning comedian Rosie Wilby who has written for the Guardian, The Sundays Times and New Statesman.
The book ties-in with Rosie Wilby’s highly successful and celebrated podcast ’The Break-up Monologues’.
The book features a wealth of celebrity contributions including those from: Miranda Sawyer, Katy Brand, Helen Croydon and Katie Spicer.

Contents

Introduction
Prologue: The Butterfly Painting

Part One: Backwards
1 Wired for Love
2 The Lexicon of Breakups
3 I Thought I’d been Ghosted but He’d Just Gone to Prison
4 Great Expectations
5 Stuck in the Middle
6 It’s All Downhill from Here
7 The Moths of Doom
8 ’Just Scream!’
9 The Bisexual Comedian
10 Hormonal Hell
11 Summer Freeze
12 The Friendship Breakup
13 Only Child Syndrome
14 Unwanted Snapshots
15 Sex and Death

Part Two: Bonus Breakup Content
Breakup Playlist
Bite-Sized Breakup Stories
A Few of my Favourite Breakup Films

Part Three: Forwards
16 Beginnings are Endings and Endings are Beginnings
17 A Fart in a Graveyard … and the Value of Arguing
18 The Professional Breakup
19 Shared Values and Experiences
20 ’Til Dog Us Do Part
21 We Are Family
22 Keeping it Together, Moving On
23 Healthy Space … and a bit about Attachment Theory
24 The Good Breakup
25 Poly Breakups
26 My Chemical Romance?
27 Towards a Growth Mindset
28 Recovery and Reprogramming
29 Happy Endings
30 We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Bed
Epilogue: Love in the Time of Corona
Conclusion: How Breakups Keep Us Together

Acknowledgements
Further Reading

Praise for The Breakup Monologues

We all know about the joys of love and relationships, but there’s so much more to discover about the glorious benefits of breakups. Rosie reassures and entertains you through brilliant stories and fabulous facts, about what can be gained from the end of a relationship. This is a hilarious, honest and brilliant book!

piercingly honest… witty… wonderful

For anyone who has ever been disenchanted by idealised romantic fairytales, this book will make you feel less alone. Rosie Wilby unearths the hope and hilarity that can come from heartbreak.

My favourite way to learn is when a funny, clever, honest person is teaching me - that’s why I love Rosie Wilby!

Funny, sweet, entertaining, insightful, life-affirming... this book is all the things a breakup is not. Rosie’s wisdom is balm for the soul for anyone who has ever been in love.

[a] gem of a book

Comedian Rosie Wilby deftly blends her own experiences with insights from therapists, sociologists and scientists to explore why heartbreak can be so devastating.

If you’ve ever been heartbroken, this will help you heal. Plus it’s FUNNY

... wise, funny and clever

I unexpectedly found this really brilliant. It’s about how heartbreak can be a real turning point and the creativity that comes with the depths of depression. It’s a really new take on it.

The smartest and most thought-provoking book about breakups in recent memory… expertly blends comedy, personal memoir and science to create the most essential book of the season

The Breakup Monologues is a book to go back to, again and again. It’s smart, funny, and wise. Buy it for all your friends, single, coupled, or otherwise.

Fascinating, insightful and empathetic, it’s a more compelling read than many novels and considerably funnier.

A brilliantly wise combination of humour and science.

The Breakup Monologues is utterly readable and engaging. It cleverly delves into a universal rite of passage, analysing it from a scientific and psychological angle while also being moving and invoking laughter.

An absolute joy to read, The Breakup Monologues will no doubt make anyone who reads it think more deeply and empathetically about their former and current relationships. And laugh. A lot.

Rosie is the most amiable, trustworthy, and soul-searching of narrators. Anyone in need of supportive hand-holding in the love department should read this. Still, it’s far more than a self-help book. The Break-up Monologues is a bittersweet laugh from start to finish – my new literary best friend.

Her wit and compassion make this a joyful read

Unflinchingly honest…reassuring, relatable and surprisingly hopeful.

Product Details

• Title: The Breakup Monologues: The Unexpected Joy of Heartbreak
• Author: Rosie Wilby
• Publisher: Green Tree
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781472982315, 9781472982285, 1472982282, 1472982312
• Resource ID: LLS:9781472982315
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T12:29:56Z

About the Author

Rosie Wilby is an award-winning comedian who has appeared many times on BBC Radio 4 programmes including Woman's Hour, Loose Ends, Midweek, The Human Zoo and Four Thought. Her first book Is Monogamy Dead? followed her TEDx talk of the same name and a trilogy of internationally-acclaimed solo shows investigating the psychology of love and relationships.

Rosie also presents The Breakup Monologues podcast, which was nominated for a British Podcast Award and has been recommended by Chortle, BBC Radio 4, The Observer, Metro and Time Out. She writes for publications including the Guardian, Cosmo, The Sunday Times and New Statesman and regularly appears as a commentator on sexuality, dating and love on radio and TV programmes including Good Morning Britain.