motherhood
When two worlds collide: Well, This is Awkward, by Esther Walker reviewed
A high-powered childless fortysomething social media exec’s life is turned upside down by the arrival of her 11-year-old niece
Who will stand up for motherhood?
Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University have created the beginnings of a baby using not human eggs, but…
Mothers’ union: The Benefactors, by Wendy Erskine, reviewed
Three wealthy Belfast women join forces to defend their sons accused of sexual assault – regardless of rights and wrongs
The mother of a mystery: Audition, by Katie Kitamura, reviewed
A married couple’s life is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of a handsome young man out of the blue claiming to be the woman’s son
Marriage, motherhood and money: Show Don’t Tell, by Curtis Sittenfeld, reviewed
Funny, smart stories explore the ‘stale’ married state, the anxieties of parenthood and the sweet-sour nature of female friendship. But do they go far enough?
The best film about a woman turning into a dog that you’ll see this year
Nightbitch stars Amy Adams as a mother who is so full of rage about her loss of identity it makes…
The shame of being an alcoholic mother
Julia Hamilton and her daughter Arabella Byrne share their experiences of an addiction that seemed ‘baked into them like a curse’, and the special stigma they felt attached to them
Childcare is mothercare
When I was a small child, my mother left me in the charge of an elderly neighbour so that she…
Why Mummy smokes
It’s 7.02 p.m. and I’m standing outside my house by the bins smoking a fag. Upstairs, I can hear that…
Murder in the dark: The Eighth House, by Linda Segtnan, reviewed
Motherhood prompts Segtnan to research the cold case of Birgitta Sivander, a nine-year-old found murdered in a Swedish forest in 1948
British families deserve a tax break
I am delighted to report that some £800,000 of taxpayers’ money is to be spent ‘remediating’ the works of Robert…
A mother-daughter love story
In her latest memoir, Leslie Jamison describes her pregnancy, experience of childbirth and devotion to her baby, returning repeatedly to the dilemmas of a working mother
Refugee lives: The Singularity, by Balsam Karam, reviewed
The stories of two tragic mothers are interwoven in a haunting novel revolving around war, displacement, despair and the loss of children
Sins of the mothers
Frida Liu, the 39-year-old mother of a toddler named Harriet, has a very bad day which will haunt her for…
Hopes and fears
When Violet wakes up in Birmingham Women’s Hospital at the start of Alex Hyde’s debut novel her first thought is…
Mother’s ruin
The Lost Daughter is an adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel about motherhood that says, quite ferociously: it’s complicated. And:…
Middle-aged thrills
Beth, the protagonist of Joanna Briscoe’s The Seduction, reminded me of Clare in Tessa Hadley’s debut, Accidents in the Home.…
It’s impossible to live up to the expectations of motherhood
In a 1974 interview celebrating the quarter century since the publication of her classic The Second Sex (1949), Simone de…
No, women can’t have it all
Don’t even ask, says Anne-Marie Slaughter, law professor and former adviser to Hillary Clinton. Motherhood still means sacrifice
The breast test
New mothers who can’t keep to the breast-feeding orthodoxy face needless misery and shame
Barometer
First test The driving test celebrated its 80th anniversary. The first person to take the test, R.E.L. Beene of Kensington,…
Sex and squalor in San Francisco
Frog Music begins with a crime against a young mother, committed in a tiny space. Unlike Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel…
