American comedian, actor and writer Rob Delaney, 46, weathered a bout of alcoholism and years of struggle on the standup circuit before rocketing to fame via Twitter over a decade ago. His blend of filthy wit and mordant honesty helped make the sitcom Catastrophe, which he co-wrote and starred in alongside Sharon Horgan, a Bafta-winning hit. Since then, Delaney has appeared in films including Deadpool 2 and Home Sweet Home Alone. He has more in the pipeline but is currently taking part in the Sag-Aftra actors’ strike. In 2018, his two-year-old son Henry died of brain cancer. Delaney’s memoir, A Heart That Works, strives to capture some of what the family (he and his wife have three other sons) went through during the course of Henry’s extensive treatment and in the immediate aftermath of his death. Spare, brutally poignant and at times darkly humorous in its candour, it’s ultimately a love story.
Early on in the book, you confess that the urge to hurt people was part of your motivation for writing it. Were you surprised by how tender it turned out to be?
I almost laughed near the end because I thought I was writing this big angry monster of a book, that was my goal, but the takeaway is love – and not just for Henry but for his brothers and his mum, my sister and my niece and my parents and my in-laws. I mean, my book is like a frickin’ ad for these people and how wonderful they are.
