Sunderland author backs campaign to have comedy on prescription in a bid to improve nation's wellbeing

A Sunderland-born author has visited Westminster in her bid to have comedy used to improve people’s health.

Justine Sless - whose new novel called Before I Sing You This Song is partly based on the ‘Little Waster’ Bobby Thompson - met MPs and health experts to argue that laughter can have massive effects on wellbeing.

Justine now lives in Melbourne where she is director of the Australian School of Comedy, but she was back in the UK to launch her new book.

But she also joined campaigners to contend that comedy can have huge health benefits and said: “I was so glad to be able to be part of the incredible day at Westminster as part of my book tour.”

Justine ‘met with colleagues who have been teaching comedy as a wellbeing tool. It was affirming and so much fun!”

Justine was one of the delegates at a 2-hour meeting chaired by GP Opher Simon and Richard Quigley MP. She said it was ‘filled with personal testimonials from individuals and organisations, practitioners, councils and MP's all advocating for comedy as social prescribing’.

“I have been teaching comedy for over 20 years. The opportunity to be with peers in parliament was affirming.”

Justine grew up in Hendon and went to Valley Road Junior School before moving on to Southmoor School. She remembers working at Chalkie’s fruit shop in Grangetown and then eventually leaving the area in 1988.

Before I Sing You This Song was published by Crear Publishing and launched this month. It is set in Sunderland in 1978, and draws inspiration from The Little Waster Bobby Thompson. But the seed was first sewn when Justine watched a documentary about the Little Waster.

The story is told through the eyes of Elsie Bishop, a Hendon born woman whose diaries and newspaper cuttings form the backbone of the narrative. Elsie is an ordinary woman with an extraordinary ambition: to perform stand-up comedy at a time when women were permitted to sing in working men’s clubs, but never to tell jokes.

Justine is a comedian and author whose recent solo show, BRAVO, played at the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival to high praise. She teaches stand-up comedy and creative writing in schools, workplaces and libraries, with a particular focus on people at risk of homelessness and those living with complex mental health conditions.

But her new book is very much based in North East England.

Before I Sing You This Song is available by visiting https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HDSBMXCG or at local bookstores:

Chapter 13 11 Frederick St, Sunniside, Sunderland SR1 1NAhttps://chapter13bookshop.co.uk/

Electric Beacon Bookstore 1 Albemarle St, South Shields NE33 1LZhttps://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ElectricBeaconBooks

Bridge St Books 4A Bridge St, Amble, Morpeth NE65 0DR Amble https://bridgestreetbooks.co.uk/