Fatherhood: The Truth

Description

There are lots of books about parenthood. But if you look closely most of them are about motherhood. Fathers get brief paragraphs about needing the odd cuddle themselves and being helpful for carrying the heavier elements of baby kit, but that's it. This book, on the other hand, is a shed-friendly man's guide to the whole scary, life-changing business. One that looks beyond the happy-clappy cliches into the fiery hell of night feeds and projectile vomiting. 'Shit happens' will suddenly start to make sense as a phrase. Providing crucial information and insight on every aspect of parenting with pitch perfect humour, it takes the father-to-be on a white-knuckle ride from conception to the first birthday that also considers the emotional truths and selfish imperatives that fathers are usually asked to bury out of sight. It is a personally informed journey but touches all the crucial practical bases to make it a one-stop, know-it-all manual for the prospective dad. Whether fatherhood is imminent or you're still kidding yourself that broodiness is just a phase your partner's going through, the naked truth is in here, or perhaps you just want to laugh at other men in this predicament or use this book as a form of contraception!

A gifted journalist and public speaker, Marcus Berkmann is an ex-Independent on Sunday sports columnist and ex-Mail pop critic. He writes for the Spectator and Private Eye. His book The Rain Men (1996) is a modern classic that still regularly reprints. The Telegraph called it 'the Fever Pitch of cricket' and Sir Tim Rice called it 'a masterpiece'. Marcus - who claims to have two small children - views parenting with the combined eye of Miriam Stoppard and Bertie Wooster.

I laughed out loud and squirmed with awful recognition. Marcus Berkmann is one of our funniest writers, and he was sent by Heaven - or was it Hell? - to write Fatherhood -- Craig Brown Berkmann is a very funny writer ... the text is laugh out loud funny * Daily Express * Ambitious and substantial ... Berkmann is highly entertaining ... with an anarchic Monty Pythonesque sense of fun -- Alain de Botton * Sunday Times * The laughs come in every paragraph. A masterpiece about sad, neurotic British fathers * Sunday Telegraph * A man of infinite wisdom and experience when it comes to male parenting in the 21st century ... The daddy of baby guides ... quick-witted ... excellent * Mail on Sunday *