What it feels like for a girl - Paris Lees

"Fresh, original, heartbreaking" Reni Eddo-Lodge

"Devastating, hilarious, unlike anything I have ever read. Destined to be a classic" Pandora Sykes

'A must-read ... as mesmerising as it is poignant' Stylist, SPRING MUST-READ BOOKS TO FEEL EMPOWERED
'This utterly distinctive memoir, written almost out loud in Nottinghamshire vernacular, hauls you into the world Lees grew up in... it's shocking, funny, heart-rending and totally brilliant' The Bookseller, EDITOR'S CHOICE MAY 2021
'What It Feels Like for a Girl says it like it is' Evening Standard, BEST NEW BOOKS IN 2021

Thirteen-year-old Byron needs to get away, and doesn't care how. Sick of being beaten up by lads for "talkin' like a poof" after school. Sick of dad - the weightlifting, womanising Gaz - and Mam, who pissed off to Turkey like Shirley Valentine. Sick of all the people in Hucknall who shuffle about like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave.

It's a new millennium, Madonna's 'Music' is top of the charts and there's a whole world to explore - and Byron's happy to beg, steal and skank onto a rollercoaster ride of hedonism. Life explodes like a rush of ecstasy when Byron escapes into Nottingham's kinetic underworld and discovers the East Midlands' premier podium-dancer-cum-hellraiser, the mesmerising Lady Die. But when the comedown finally kicks in, Byron arrives at a shocking encounter that will change life forever.

Bold, poignant and riotously funny, What It Feels Like For a Girl is the unique, hotly-anticipated and addictively-readable debut from one of Britain's most exciting young writers.

Paris Lees was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. She is a Contributing Editor at British Vogue, and has written for the Guardian, VICE and the Telegraph. She has received multiple awards for her journalism and work as an anti-bullying campaigner - and an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton. She was the first openly trans woman to present on BBC Radio 1 and Channel 4 and also the first to appear on Question Time. This is her first book.

Fresh, original, heartbreaking and optimistic. The subtlety of time passing reminds me of Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's writing.
Reni Eddo Lodge

Paris Lees is the voice of a generation
Paul Flynn

Brilliant, brutal and bitingly funny, Lees is going to rip your heart out and show you the ugly truth about kids Britain would rather pretend don't exist. There's never been a book like this
Matthew Todd

Devastating one page, hilarious the next, What It Feels Like for a A Girl is unlike anything I have ever read. Utterly unique and imbued with hope - it is destined to be a classic.
Pandora Sykes

An important debut
douard Louis

A sensational, gut-wrenching read: raw, moving, and ultimately life-affirming
Owen Jones

Often hilarious, sometimes moving, consistently engrossing, always authentic and ultimately uplifting. Reminiscent of Trainspotting and Irvine Welsh. A tour-de-force
Matt Cain

A must-read ... as mesmerising as it is poignant
Stylist, SPRING MUST-READ BOOKS TO FEEL EMPOWERED

This utterly distinctive memoir, written almost out loud in Nottinghamshire vernacular, hauls you into the world Lees grew up in... it's shocking, funny, heart-rending and totally brilliant
The Bookseller, EDITOR'S CHOICE MAY 2021

What It Feels Like for a Girl says it like it is
Evening Standard, BEST NEW BOOKS IN 2021

A groundbreaking, peerless journey into trauma and the impossibility of fighting for the self
Sleaford Mods

Paris Lees has created a totally complete world in the way that something like Trainspotting or Skins or It's A Sin did... made a universe, populated it with people that you absolutely care about, dialect that you're completely absorbed by, then smashed your heart to smithereens
Alexandra Hemingsley

Nothing is off-limits in this unputdownable memoir ... her wit and expert storytelling soften some heartbreaking experiences
British Vogue

Heartbreaking, hilarious and impossible to put down: Paris Lees' What It Feels Like For a Girl is genuinely singular. It's raw, viscerally real and Byron is a character who will stay with you long after you've finished
Yomi Adegoke

Powerful and authentic, a memoir with the depth and writerly virtuosity of a fine novel.
Katherine O'Donnell

A truly fresh, exciting take on the genre of memoir
Cosmopolitan

Raw, heartbreaking, and scorchingly funny, What It Feels Like For A Girl is a boldly-written and truly transformative account of an extraordinary life story. Please do yourself a favour and read it
Otegha Uwagba

Lees has lived an extraordinary life, and it makes for extraordinary writing
Guardian - Rebecca Nicholson

A ketamine-laced coming of age memoir... recalls being in a nightclub where you can still smoke and euphoric music blares non-stop ... a dark comedy from a little-heard perspective. Even when there's blood dripping on the page as a result of bullying, Lees manages to make it read like a sketch ... very powerful
The Observer - Kadish Morris

Heartbreaking and hilarious
Dazed Magazine

Smart and exuberant... By excavating her painful past in her memoir, [Lees] has crafted a vivid story of trauma, rebellion and astonishing resilience
The Guardian - Fiona Sturges

Fast and funny and furious... the writing is so alive and warm that you don't feel remotely miserable while reading it, even while your heart is pounding for her
Grazia - Sophie Heawood

It is so vivid, and the use of dialect so clever, that it feels as if you are living her life with her.
David Walliams

Written in a chatty, instantly endearing vernacular, What It Feels Like For A Girl is a crank-it-up-to-11 account of the British trans experience.
Refinery29

Written entirely in Midlands dialect, with each chapter named after a Noughties hit, Paris Lees's novelised account of her Nottingham childhood will make you shake with laughter and weep with heartbreak in the space of a few pages.
British Vogue Summer Reads