Bradley Riches has released his first book this week, putting his autism advocacy at the center of a new project that reaches beyond his work on Emmerdale. Vicky Myers marked the launch by posting public support for him on social media, writing: “You’re amazing @brad_riches #autisticallyme.”

The book, Autistically Me: How to understand and celebrate our autistic minds, is pitched by Riches as a celebratory toolkit for unique minds. He says it blends lived experience with practical advice and is meant to guide anyone navigating autism at any stage of their journey, which helps explain why the release has drawn attention now: it is not just a memoir-style milestone, but a resource aimed at readers looking for language, structure and reassurance.

Riches plays Lewis Barton in Emmerdale, a character described as the soap’s first neurodivergent figure, and that role has already made him part of a wider conversation about representation. Lewis made his first appearance last year, after Riches had originally come to Leeds for a meeting about a different character, Dylan. The timing did not work for that part, and he thought he had missed the chance. He was contacted back in December two years ago, then secured Lewis after an audition and a chemistry test with Mike Parr.

That route to the screen matters because it explains why Riches says the part felt right in a way the first one did not. “I felt like it was meant to be,” he said. “The personality of the character fits me so much better.” The book release now extends that fit into print, turning the same experience that shaped his acting work into a guide for readers who may be looking for something practical as much as personal.

For Riches, the more immediate question is not whether the book will add to his profile, but how many readers it reaches with the message he has been building around autism from the start. If Autistically Me lands as intended, it will do more than celebrate one launch week: it will give his public voice a second life, on the page.