Can I Have My Ball Back? : A memoir of masculinity, mortality and my right testicle

Author: Herring, Richard

Biography & True Stories

Published on 19 October 2023 by Little, Brown Book Group (Sphere) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 304 pages
127 x 199 x 22 | 244g

At the start of 2021 Richard Herring was diagnosed with testicular cancer. For a man whose output includes a stand-up tour titled Talking Cock and who regularly interrogates our attitudes towards masculinity, it was a diagnosis that came with additional layers of complexity.

Telling Rich's personal story alongside an exploration of what defines masculinity and 'maleness' in society, Can I Have My Ball Back? is not your typical cancer memoir. Whether they're nuts, bollocks, gonads or family jewels; from the phrase 'grow some balls' to infamous WWII songs about Hitler; Rich unpicks the tangle of emotions around his own testing times.