Sarah Close won a BBC comedy scriptwriting competition in her twenties and went on to develop scripts for Writersroom, working alongside comedy commissioning at the BBC. Sarah has the distinctive ability to see humour in the most challenging of situations. This Did Hurt, her riposte to Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt, charts her journey into motherhood in a maternity care system pushed too far. Sarah also co-runs two Cat Cafes with her sister, providing animal-assisted therapy for local communities in Manchester and Liverpool, and she runs this alongside her role as a wife and the mother of two boisterous children.

Saraband, the award-winning independent publisher, will publish This Did Hurt on 1 October 2026. A raw, darkly funny and unflinchingly honest memoir about Sarah’s journey through pregnancy, childbirth and the stark realities of NHS maternity care today, the book pulls back the curtain on modern maternity care and asks urgent questions about what happens when a system is pushed too far — and who pays the price.