Headline to Publish Yardsticks for Failure by Ivo Graham

We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Yardsticks For Failure, the debut book from Taskmaster star Ivo Graham, publishing 26th September 2024 by Headline. Richard Roper, former Senior Commissioning Editor at Headline, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Flo Howard at Off The Kerb. Yvonne Jacob, Deputy Publishing Director, will be editing.

Yardsticks For Failure is a deep dive into the various facepalms of Ivo’s recent past, and a live diary of his unravelling present, where his solution to the general bedlam of his life has been to pile his plate higher than ever before. Longer-term resolutions of rest and relaxation can wait; in the meantime, he’s trying to host the greatest club night of all time, run a Sub-3 marathon while pushing a wheelchair, and put his heart on the line in a show unlike anything he’s ever done before.

This is a gleeful glimpse behind the grubby curtain of stand-up comedy, via friendship and films, fatherhood and Funkytown. A feast for anyone who’s ever been enthralled or appalled by Ivo’s cursed politeness, squandered promise, or serial prank-victimhood; for anyone battling to get their own life inbox to zero; for anyone who’s ever set fire to a diary, lost their mind over a quiz, or pegged it through a station for the last train home. Yardsticks For Failure is a unique self-examination from one of the most eloquent writers and worriers of his generation. Ivo almost certainly won’t achieve everything he sets out to, but it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

Yvonne Jacob says: ‘We’re thrilled to welcome Ivo to the Headline list. In Yardsticks For Failure he brilliantly draws on those aspirations we all have, both big and small, that are slipping away in the face our daily grind. It’s the book we all need to help us lean into our dreams, as well as our to do list, and find out a little bit more about ourselves along the way.’

Ivo says: ‘As much as I enjoy being sent memes of myself in distress, usually clutching my head in a shed, it’s a huge privilege to be able to flesh out my catalogue of professional meltdowns in my own words. I haven’t made the best of all the privileges in my life, but I fully intend to make the best of this one.’


Despite extensive grooming for more serious careers at Eton and Oxford, Ivo has spent his entire adult life on the stand-up circuit, winning So You Think You’re Funny? at aged 18 in 2009, and since establishing himself as, if not the UK’s poshest, then certainly its most apologetically posh comedian. His 2019 show The Game of Life received nominations for Best Show and Best Joke at the Edinburgh Fringe. 2023 saw Ivo appear as a contestant on the 15th series of Channel 4’s Taskmaster, and fans of his chaotic energy on that show can see it live, first on the concluding leg of his current My Future, My Clutter tour.

Yardsticks For Failure will be published in hardback, ebook, and audiobook on 26th September 2024.