The Truth About Babies: From A-Z

Description

Babies are strange. They enter our lives, and things are never the same again - it's 'Year Zero', for us and for them. In this extraordinary book, Ian Sansom (father of three) writes about human beings in their first year of life, and the cataclysmic effect they have on those around them. While most books about babies are either manuals crammed with milestones and measurements or sentimental reflections on the nature of parenthood, The Truth About Babies is a book both honest and unique. It is written as a series of alphabetic meditations on every aspect of the first year of life - from the Apgar Test to zippers, and everything in between, from bath-times to double buggies. Sansom's own sharp and tender observations are juxtaposed with those of other thinkers and writers: Nabokov on the experience of pushing a pram, D.H. Lawrence on holding a sleeping child, Ted Hughes on nappies and other examples of the wise and the bizarre from the Bible, from literature, history, pop, culture and folklore. It is profound, philosophical and earthy and very, very funny.

Ian Sansom reviews regularly for the Guardian and the London Review of Books. He lives in Northern Ireland with his wife and three children.

"One of the most interesting and literate meditations available."