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HarperCollins will publish a memoir from the “African Mother Theresa”, Edna Adan Ismail.
Imprint HQ will release Simply a Midwife by Ismail, “one of the world’s foremost pioneers” in nursing, health education and women’s rights.
The imprint’s executive publisher, Lisa Milton, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Annabel Merullo at Peters Fraser Dunlop Literary Agency. It will be published in hardback, e-book and audio formats hardback in spring, with r.r.p. of £20.
A major production company will be optioning film rights to the book, which will be co-written by Wendy Holden, author of titles Till the Sun Grows Cold (Headline) and Born Survivors (Sphere).
Played out against the bloody canvas of a war-torn corner of Africa, Edna’s story and achievements are truly inspiring, the publisher said. As the 12-year-old daughter of a doctor growing up in British Somaliland, her dream was to build her own hospital, the kind that her father would want to work in.
“It took her some 50 years and all her savings to realise her ambition, but the state-of- the-art hospital she founded is a testament to her passion and dogged determination,” an HQ spokesperson said.
Having trained as a midwife became her country’s first lady, then its first female politician, rising to minister of family welfare and social affairs and then foreign minister in between military coups, imprisonment, forced indoctrination, midwifery, and front-line nursing.
An HQ spokesperson said she has also become one of the world’s foremost campaigners against female genital mutilation - something she endured as an eight-year-old, breaking deep-rooted taboos by publicly condemning the widespread practice.
“From the first moment I heard about Edna, I knew I wanted to publish her incredible story,” Milton said. “Starting with her time as a midwife cycling around London in the 1950s to building the first women’s hospital in Somaliland, Edna never fails to inspire me. By sharing her incredible story, I know she will inspire many more. At 80 years young, Edna strives daily to achieve meaningful change for women and we created HQ to publish exactly this kind of story.”
Ismail said: “To have the world-leading publishing firm, HarperCollins, publish my life story is exciting and humbling at the same time.”
“From the moment I learned about the remarkable life and times of Edna Adan Ismail, I couldn’t wait to get started,” Holden said.
“Hers is a truly inspirational story and her selfless devotion to the many causes she fights for is humbling. The world is undoubtedly a better place because of Edna.”