A life's work : on becoming a mother

When it was first published, Cusk's memoir of new motherhood shocked readers and critics alike: it was called `as compulsive as a thriller' by the Observer, `an incitement to riot' by Esther Freud and `career suicide' by the New York Times.

Cusk was accused of self-obsession, of hating her child and of having post-natal depression, just as she was being celebrated by others for having the courage to speak the truth about being a mother.

A modern classic and the antithesis of a parenting manual, in A Life's Work Cusk writes with unflinching honesty and wry humour about the sleepless nights, the loneliness, the moments of despair but also of fierce heart-stopping love.