Blogger Jack Monroe signs book deal

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Jack Monroe has inked a deal with Penguin UK. The author of the successful budget food blog, A Girl called Jack, has sold the world rights to a cookbook to the publishing giant. The book features over 100 recipes and is due for publication in March 2014.

Lindsey Evans, Cookery Publisher at Penguin, says, ‘Jack Monroe is a fresh new voice for our times and I am so pleased that Penguin will be publishing her first cookbook.’

Single mother from Southend-on-Sea, Jack, who is represented by DCD Media, found fame through her blog after having just £10 a week left in her budget to feed both her and her son. Now, her blog receives 10,000 unique visitors a day.

Jack, 25, had to sell most of her possessions and survived by turning tins of food costing pennies into posh meals fit to be dished up at any upmarket gastro-pub.

In July last year she was forced to quit her £27,000-a-year job as a fire brigade worker because her shift ­patterns played havoc with childcare – and she simply could not afford the 40-mile round trip to work.

The single mum then failed to land another job despite sending out more than 300 applications.

Instead, she started her own craft business – but it earned her just £250 a month.

And once all the bills were paid, that left her with no more than a tenner a week to feed Johnny, two.

But since then Jack, from Southend, has signed deal with publishing giant Penguin for a book of bargain recipes.

She’s also launched an online blog that has become an internet sensation with 15,000 hits a month – and been snapped up by a local paper.

She said: “I thought it was ­ridiculous when I was first ­approached because I had people asking me to write a book but no one would give me a job.

“But I was eventually offered a job and given a publishing deal and things happened quite quickly.”

Yet only six months ago Jack was being forced to survive on £250 a month earnings and £570 in child and housing benefits.

Out of that she paid £675 in rent plus an average of £83 for power, £15 for water and £20 for toiletries and cleaning products. She would save cash by scrimping on heating in her sparsely-furnished two-bed flat and wrap up son Johnny in hats and gloves to keep him warm.

And there were nights Jack went hungry to give Johnny extra pasta.

Reflecting on the change in her fortunes, she said: “You can’t just forget things like that so I’ll stick to my budget because you never know what the future holds.”

Jack went on: “I’ve taken a significant cut in tax-credits because of my book deal, my housing benefit has dried up because of ­government cuts and my earnings will be too much because of the book and the new job.”

Penguin were so impressed by Jack’s style and the quality of her food they gave her a £25,000 advance to come up with more than 100 low-budget recipes in a book due to be published next March.

Read More:

http://dcdpublishing.co.uk/dcd-to-represent-a-girl-called-jack-first-book-deal-with-penguin/