Rachel Parris says her miscarriage prompted Advice From Strangers: ‘That experience made me want to write the book’

Virgin Radio

22 Mar 2022, 16:46

Comedian and presenter Rachel Parris joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky this morning to talk about her latest book Advice From Strangers: Everything I Know From People I Don’t Know.

Rachel has appeared on many British comedy programmes, from Mock the Week to Would I Lie To You? But she is probably best known for her regular appearances on Late Night Mash hosted by Nish Kumar.

Now, the comedian is adding ‘author’ to her list of talents after releasing her new book ‘Advice From Strangers’.

The book came about after Rachel was invited by her old secondary school to give an inspiring speech to current students. In search of help, she decided to ask members of her live audience for some nuggets of advice over the course of a year.

Each chapter of the book is named after one of the pieces of advice she collected during that time- such as ‘Stay Hydrated- Respect Women’ or ‘Never Pass Up The Opportunity For A Wee’.

Rachel held on to these pieces of advice for a few years after collecting them, but it was one particularly traumatic event in her life that prompted her to turn them into a book.

Speaking to Chris about that time in her life, she said: “So in 2020, it was my first pregnancy, and after a few months, we kind of passed the safe point of 12 weeks, and everything was fine.

“So we were very much looking to the future. But then it was more around the five-month mark, things started going wrong.

She continued: “I was in hospital alone because of lockdown for two weeks, and we lost the baby. I talked in the chapter about how it's quite an unusual circumstance. At that stage, you do give birth, but it's still called a late miscarriage.

“It was incredibly sad, and I wanted to talk about it actually. That experience made me want to write the book, and that's when I started writing it.

She added: “I started with that chapter first because I felt a huge need to write down what I was feeling- partly for others, but partly for me to get it out.”

Other chapters in the book focus then on Rachel getting pregnant again and the anxiety she felt around that but also the joy of eventually giving birth to a healthy baby boy.

Another big inspiration for Rachel when writing her book and for her comedy career as a whole, was another well-known comedian- Tim Minchin.

She explained she had always wanted her comedy to make people “feel things”, which is something she admires Minchin for doing.

She said: “I always thought it'd be nice to do not just comedy and not just be funny, but also make people feel other things as well.

“I remember seeing Tim Minchin in 2006, I think it was at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the fact that he did funny songs but also was a brilliant musician, but also did sad songs as well and made you feel more than just wanting to laugh, was a total revelation.

“People just wanted to listen to his songs, and actually they liked him even more for doing emotional songs and doing something different. So, like as a young person starting out thinking, ‘Can I do comedy because I don't want to just be funny every single minute?’ it was absolutely life-changing.”

This is something Rachel has now taken with her into her comedy career.

She explained: “I found, in my live shows which are also like the book… they're more funny, but there's always like an emotional bit in them.

“But actually, after people have had a bit of sadness, or empathy or whatever, they actually enjoy the joy more.”

Advice From Strangers is available now.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.