Freebie Friday: Win a copy of Bring in on, Baby!

There are more pregnancy and motherhood advice books on the market than you can shake a Clearblue stick at! Most of them are earnest, some of them are finger-wagging, and others seem designed to make you feel guilty every second of the day. This is not one of those books.

Written by Zoe Williams, the Guardian journalist behind the hilarious ‘Anti-natal’ column, Bring It On, Baby is a straight-talking corrective to the sea of advice that engulfs pregnant women and new mums. It considers such issues as the overbearing public guidelines on what not to eat or drink, ‘women shouldn’t be treated like three-year-olds, airily instructed in the way of things with no proper explanation,’ weighs up the relative merits of different childcare routines, ‘It doesn’t make any sodding difference. There are easy babies and difficult babies, and, before you know it, they’re no longer babies,’ and even considers the correct response to the question, ‘Who’s fatter, my sister or me?’

I am often sceptical about books like this as they promise a great deal but fail to deliver – however this had me laughing out loud in the first chapter! It really does shout out loud from the roof tops all the things that a mother (or parent) often thinks, but wouldn’t actually say – unless to a very good friend whilst under the influence.  What I think is most striking though is the balance that Zoe has achieved. She manages to be this angry, accidentally pregnant woman who looks for an argument in every comment and piece of professional advice, but then does some solid research to show up where all the myths are. She is very honest about her lack of any sort of maternal feelings and preparation for being a mother and yet happily and honestly describes her instant and over whelming love for her baby. Despite this love she can still talk candidly about the depths of the lows that parenting brings and the changes you go through and the illogical nature of all things connected to being a mum.

I would be careful about recommending this to a mum-to-be – yes it would save them some heartache and be an honest perspective – but mostly because they simply wouldn’t be able to enjoy how honest it is – and I think it is source of great humour for mums everywhere. 

To celebrate the release of Bring It On, Baby by Zoe Williams, we have 5 copies to give away.

To enter simply answer the following question:

Where does Zoe Williams live?     Hint: Look in the About the Author section in the right hand column

Email your answer with BABY as the subject to info (at) mumstheboss.co.uk. Competition closes at 7pm on Friday 30^th July and winners will be notified by email by Monday 2^nd August.

And if you aren’t lucky enough to win you can get your hands on a copy of the book now at www.guardianbooks.co.uk