British 'household rant' blogger scores book deal

We all have complaints about the people we love and live with, but typically they don't turn into book deals. But Zoe McCarthy (no relation to this reporter), a 44-year-old British woman who gained cult fame for operating a blog called "My Boyfriend is a Twat," has recently cashed in on her significant other's tics and quirks. McCarthy, according to the U.K.'s Observer, has received about a $10,000 advance from Web-to-print publisher The Friday Project to turn her blog into a book. Not quite a Harry Potter-worthy figure, but nothing to scoff at, either.

A twice-divorced office manager with three teenage children, McCarthy describes her blog as "an affectionate guide to spotting, dealing and living with a twat, aka the average English bloke." It's built up quite the following of readers and has won the Best European Weblog category in the user-picked "Bloggies" award for three years running.

The blog reads like a characteristically British domestic comedy: "The Twat is trying to lose weight--something he really needs to do and so has given up wine until his birthday in mid-October," McCarthy wrote on August 14, for example. "This is all very well, but his stable diet as of now is either pasta with pesto sauce or a salad (yes, green food) which takes him forever to finish."

But before you come to the conclusion that this will certainly erupt in scandal, it turns out that the "twat" in question, 44-year-old Andy Carling, is well aware of the blog and actually "says he is delighted" by the book deal, according to the Observer. In fact, he was the one who dared her to start writing "My Boyfriend is a Twat" in the first place. Carling and McCarthy reportedly met in 2001, and McCarthy has been operating the blog for four of the following years, so it doesn't appear to have hurt the relationship whatsoever.