Transworld editorial director Lucy Oates has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for HONESTY: The Freedom to Live Life on Your Own Terms by Radhika Sanghani from Emma Bal at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency at auction.
Sanghani is an award-winning journalist, screenwriter, writing mentor, speaker, and author of seven novels. Honesty, her first work of adult non-fiction explores just how much our lives change for the better when we’re more candid with others – and with our selves. Weaving her personal experience with new research, Sanghani unpicks every aspect of honesty from the societal to the psychological, offering a radical alternative to people-pleasing, boundary-setting and estrangement.
Her research has found that even though most of us were brought up being told that it’s bad to lie, we still do it all the time. We’re terrified of being completely honest. We think it will lead to hurting our loved ones, losing our jobs, and ending up alone and unloved. But when Sanghani gave up lying, the exact opposite happened, and her life was transformed for the better. Collaborating with experts including Kim Scott and Dr Anna Lembke, she shows how choosing to live more honestly makes us feel better physically, mentally and emotionally, and gives us advice on how to be honest with kindness, never estranging ourselves in pursuit of ‘our truth’. This simple shift transforms how we relate to the world around us: across work, relationships, friendships and our inner selves.
Honesty is a roadmap for a braver, more fulfilling way to live.
Lucy Oates says: ‘Radhika’s transformative idea immediately captured our attention at Transworld. We know, in our hearts, that our most fruitful relationships are our most honest ones, but here we see how our attempt to protect others’ feelings only gets in the way of connection, health and happiness. Radhika’s pioneering personal story, combined with her sharp and actionable advice, gives us a simple way to live more authentically, more free, and crucially, more kindly.’
Radhika Sanghani says: ‘This book is deeply personal – it shares my story of learning that the decades I’d spent people-pleasing were all down to my problem with dishonesty, and that it was having hugely detrimental effects on my health and my happiness. I’ve loved diving into the science of honesty and exploring how simply moving away from lying can transform our lives in every way. I hope this book encourages readers to live more honestly and experience all the joy that can bring’.
Honesty will be published by Transworld in the UK in March 2027.
