Duckworth signs Mina Moriarty’s ‘fascinating, witty’ history of women’s health

Duckworth has acquired What Ails Her?: A History of Women’s Health by historian and content creator Mina Moriarty.

Editorial Director Clare Bullock acquired world English-language rights from Abi Fellows at DHH Literary, with publication scheduled for spring 2027.

What Ails Her? explores how women of the past looked after their health, from periods, pregnancy and childbirth to beauty standards, mental health and pain management.

“Written by one of Britain’s most exciting young historians, Mina Moriarty, the book will highlight how women’s health has been treated throughout history and reveals the sometimes devastating legacy of those practices on our bodies today. Moriarty has built a devoted international following, creating short-form videos that delve into the history of women’s health, and was inspired to write the book after experiencing her own health issues and struggles with diagnoses,” the publisher says.

Based in Scotland, Moriarty is a historian and content creator with more than 300,000 followers across her social platforms. She studied creative writing at the University of Glasgow and is the author of the biography Who the Hell is Olympe de Gouges?

Moriarty said: “Like many women, I’ve been consistently gaslighted by doctors and told my pain isn’t real. I’m writing this book because this systemic issue has a long history. How can we understand the reason for medical prejudice against women if we don’t know how we got here?

“In the 1850s, they applied leeches to the cervix to treat genealogical problems; today an IUD is inserted without any pain relief. The patterns are everywhere but the more we can understand our history and our bodies, the more we can get the healthcare that we deserve. I’m so excited to be launching this book with Duckworth, a publishing house with a long tradition of publishing brilliant women, from Virginia Woolf to Simone de Beauvoir and Beryl Bainbridge.”

Bullock added: “What Ails Her? is the perfect history book for our era: Mina tackles the fascinating and under-explored history of women’s health with sparkling wit and rigorous research. What Ails Her? promises to shine a light on the unsung heroines of days gone by – the inventors and healers who tried to understand the female body in all its complexity – looking to our past to teach us about our present and imagining what the future could look like.”