How to Cook Your Daughter: A Memoir

From the daughter of the bestselling author of Father Joe: the poignant and ultimately hopeful memoir of a young girl’s struggle to live a normal childhood in the chaotic seventies, and to overcome sexual abuse by her famous father

Earlier this year, Tony Hendra’s memoir, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The book detailed his life as a comedian who launched the careers of John Belushi and Chevy Chase and helped create such cult classics as This Is Spinal Tap, while he struggled with inner demons including alcohol and drug abuse. But there was a glaring omission in his supposed tell-all confessional: his sexual abuse of his daughter, Jessica Hendra, when she was a young girl.

After more than thirty years of silence, Hendra has decided to reveal the truth. In this poignant memoir, she reveals the full story behind the New York Times article that rocked the world and detailed her father’s crimes. But Jessica’s story is no footnote to her father’s story. No One Was Listening is also the inspiring story of her own journey, and how she was finally able to find healing within, after years of struggling with anorexia, bulimia, and low self-esteem. Set against the backdrop of the chaotic seventies, Hendra’s memoir follows Jessica and her sister Kathy as they strove to make a normal life for themselves amidst the madness, sex, and drug abuse that her parents and their friends—many of the household names in the world of show business—participated in. No One Was Listening reveals the hope and heartache of a young girl who was faced with a loss of innocence at an early age, who faced a slow and painful recovery, and who finally found contentment and peace within.

Her dad wrote bestseller Father Joe – but left out a few things. This is the poignant and ultimately hopeful memoir of a young girl's struggle to live a normal childhood in the '70s, and to overcome sexual abuse by her famous father.

Jessica Hendra wanted the truth to be told about her father after the publication of his supposedly confessional book, Father Joe (4.5k sold through BookScan). Her story about how he sexually abused her sent ripples of shock through the media.

Readers will see these days through the bewildered eyes of young Jessica and her sister, Kathy, who cowered while the parties went on and on, who couldn't believe that the white powder in the fridge was cocaine and not baking soda, who just wanted a normal life.

As a member of the inner circle of both the Monty Python group, an original editor of the National Lampoon, and the man who launched the careers of John Belushi and Chevy Chase, Tony Hendra was often surrounded by famous faces. Hendra mentions many moments of comedy and humour from her unique childhood. With insight, a sense of humour, and a beautifully earnest, sensitive voice, Hendra tells a story that too many readers can relate to – that of a young woman whose world spins out of control after someone she trusts sexually abuses her. Similar to books like The Little Prisoner

“Captivating, witty, and not self-pitying.” - Jane

“Sharply written and absorbing.” - Library Journal

“Excellent . . . gripping . . . Uncommonly fair and evenhanded. . . . A polished and touching piece of work.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Riveting . . . [Hendra’s] head-on confrontation with her demons is the ultimate story of bravery.” - USA Today

“Jessica Hendra’s description of ‘growing up in a world where nothing is sacred’ reads well, and a passage in which she describes the abuse to her therapist, juxtaposed with her father’s skit referred to in the book’s title, made this reviewer’s skin crawl.” - Philadelphia Inquirer

“Jessica came to see, or so she says in this steady, controlled narrative, that her neuroses, her eating disorders, her overwhelming sadness, had sprung from her father’s misconduct.” - Washington Post

“Lucid and trustworthy . . . exemplifies the reasons for and the costs and rewards of a life intent on healing.” - Christian Century

“Literature of moral power. . . . Father Joe may not have saved [Tony Hendra], but in writing her book, his daughter may have saved herself.” - New York Times

“Excellent . . . gripping . . . Jessica depicts her childhood among frenetically drug-fueled and rage-prone comics like John Belushi. . . . Uncommonly fair and evenhanded. . . . A polished and touching piece of work.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Literature of moral power. . . . Father Joe may not have saved [Tony Hendra], but in writing her book, his daughter may have saved herself.” - New York Times