Bluebird dives for Abi Feltham’s ‘transformational’ debut on breaking free from destructive habits
Bluebird associate publisher Jodie Lancet-Grant has acquired world rights to The Seven Rules of Highly Destructive People: How to Leave Bad Habits Behind and Build a Truly Happy Life by writer and content creator Abi Feltham.
Lancet-Grant bought the title, which Feltham has written with mental health and addiction specialist Rosa Town, from Oscar Janson-Smith.
The book was described by the publisher as a “transformational” memoir/self-help hybrid – one that is “moving, funny and occasionally shocking”.
The book tackles the damaging, self-sabotaging “rules” that governed Feltham’s life, leading to “years of alcoholism and drug use, empty relationships and even a suicide attempt”. She shares her story and with Town provides “clear guidance, detailed explanations and practical exercises to help tackle each of the seven rules that tend to be followed by highly destructive people”.
Feltham examines key experiences from her life such as losing her father to suicide at the age of three and how, after that, he was rarely mentioned at home; how she was expelled from school at 16; and “did bumps of cocaine at college the following year and DJ-ed her way through early 2000s Camden, before spending a decade backpacking, graduating to crystal meth in Southeast Asia, sex work in Sydney and crack in Canada”.
After moving back in with her mother in her 30s during lockdown, Feltham finally got clean, but was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour and given 15 years to live. Since the diagnosis she has become a podcaster and “endfluencer”, battling the stigma of terminal cancer and helping others with their mental health and sobriety.
Feltham said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be publishing with Bluebird and so grateful they’ve backed me in telling my story in all its messy honesty. I wrote The Seven Rules of Highly Destructive People for anyone stuck in habits they know are sabotaging them, and if it helps even a few people sort themselves out before they spectacularly blow up their own lives like I did, I’ll be delighted.”
Lancet-Grant added: “I am so proud to be publishing Abi Feltham. She has distilled her life experience into such excellent, practical advice, and I have no doubt this book will help a lot of people – as well as being a truly brilliant read.”
The Seven Rules of Highly Destructive People will be published in January 2027.
