To view the book trailer of I'm sad and I need cake, click on the image below.

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I've had a secret project going on all year with a friend of mine, Hannah Boland. It's a book about grief, friendship, coping and stuff-ups, called I feel sad and I need cake and it's coming out in January.

Hannah has a particularly tragic story to tell. Her third baby was born with a very rare and fatal condition that took his life just 47 hours after his birth. 

I first met Hannah when she got in touch with me about writing the story of her baby's life and death and her journey through the pain. Her book (which is a good one) is 47 Hours with a Prince. 

I was delighted to hear that Hannah was expecting again about a year later, and obviously, so was she. So it was a double blow to hear, 8 months into the pregnancy, that her baby girl, Esther, had been stillborn. 

I went to the funeral and cried, not just because a baby hadn't lived, but because I felt so much for Hannah and her family. (You can read what Hannah said at the funeral here...)

"How is she going to get through a second tragedy?" I thought. I didn't know then that I would be asked to play a small part in Hannah's journey.

A month after the funeral she emailed me. "Could we write letters to each other? Really honest ones. No pressure. No strings. No pretending."

"Of course," I said. So our correspondence began. 

And, I'll be honest, at first, it was clunky and awkward. I mean, what was I supposed to say to someone who'd organised two funerals of her own children in two years? I constantly teetered on the edge of too much advice giving, which is pretty much my default posture in life. Not only that, about halfway through I made a massive stuff up and had to sincerely apologise.

But you know what? We didn't tidy those bits up. Warts and all, everything's in there. The aim of the book was to be real and to be honest and to say the things that are sometimes unsayable, so we said them, and guess what? We didn't die, and we're still friends, and God still holds us in his hands. 

So this is our little book. We hope you'll give it a go, and maybe add to the conversation too.