Family is a messy, complicated business: euphoric at times, quite heart-breaking at others, with huge periods of tedium. And anyone who tells you otherwise is having you on. There’s an unlimited supply of guidebooks out there, telling you how to get the perfect baby, raise a strong girl, control a teenaged boy – ha! That’s a laugh. Don’t waste your money. But no revision of tactics can quite get you through the long campaign, or the occasional white heat of battle.

That’s why My Wild and Sleepless Nights, by Clover Stroud, is such a joy of a book.  There’s no ‘advice’ in here, no ‘systems’ are offered. It’s just an entirely honest account – so honest, in fact, it takes your breath away – of one woman and her complicated family.

If you’re one of the gazillion people who follow Clover on Instagram, you’ll know that she has almost as many blonde, apple-cheeked children as she followers. They live in a stylish, squashy house in rural bliss and it’s all picture perfect. She’s no earth mother, though; more a very earthy one. You know what it’s like sitting next to a seemingly perfect woman at a dinner party who acts like she’s got it all sussed? Well, this book is the opposite. Yes, it’s got fun and laughter and that passionate, animal love all mothers feel. But there’s also sex and gore and tragedy and complications. Clover Stroud is a wonderful writer of the most colourful prose. And your own set-up will feel quite pale in comparison.
                                                    
       
Miss Austen by Gill Hornby is on sale now