Motherhood Memoir

The unflinching, raw and utterly hilarious book about parenthood - perfect for fans of Parenting Hell 🍼 'Very, very, very funny' JO BRAND 🍼 'Bloody hilarious' CARIAD LLOYD 🍼 'Full of honesty, heart and humour' JASON MANFORD 🍼 'Raw, honest and hilarious' ROSIE RAMSAY 🍼...

When Survival Wasn’t Enough is a raw and courageous memoir about living inside a marriage built on control, fear, and manipulation—and the moment when love for children finally outweighed loyalty to an abuser. Written under a pen name to protect privacy, this book traces the author’s journey through more than a decade of narcissistic abuse. What began as safety and devotion slowly became isolation, panic, and the erosion of self-trust. As the author struggled to keep her family intact, she believed that enduring abuse was the price she had to pay to protect her children. She was wrong.

Motherhood treats one of the most consequential decisions of early adulthood - whether or not to have children - with the intelligence, wit and originality that have won Sheila Heti international acclaim. Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti’s narrator considers, with the same urgency, the question of whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, her body, her family, mysticism and chance, Heti's narrator struggles to make a wise and meaningful choice.

Life can change in a moment—especially when your child’s future becomes uncertain. Never the Plan is a deeply honest memoir about what happens when life takes you somewhere you never expected to go. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child, Fleur Bryant learnt early to hide her struggles, believing strength meant pushing harder and proving herself through achievement, independence, and determination. From international sailing competitions to career success, she built a life around overcoming limitations and appearing capable. Then motherhood changed everything.

In Motherhood, Marchiano draws from a deep well of Jungian analysis and symbolic research to present a collection of fairytales, myths, and fables that evoke the spiritual arc of raising a child from infancy through adulthood. Divided into three major segments similar to the stages of a hero's initiatory journey, (Descent, Sojourn, and Return), Motherhood charts how events like pregnancy, the calamities of childhood, and the empty-nest experience are all parts of an odyssey to which every mother receives an invitation.

In the first six weeks after her son was born, Jamila Rizvi felt isolated, exhausted and frustrated - as if the world she knew had disappeared forever. Then her salvation came in the form of a letter. A dear friend - who had been there herself - wrote to tell her that she would get through this. That she was seen and supported. That she was not alone. Now Jamila wants to pay it forward to other new mothers.

Black women are at higher risk of developing postnatal depression but are the least likely to be identified as depressed. Sharing the voices of other mothers, Sandra examines how culture, racism, stigma and a lack of trust in services prevent women getting the help they need. Breaking open the conversation on motherhood, race, and mental health, she demands that Black women are listened to, believed and understood. 

An unconventional, unexpectedly funny, brutally honest memoir about infertility, pregnancy and motherhood 'You and your partner want a baby. But your two bodies can't make a baby together.' If you want a baby but your body says otherwise - If you don't know the polite way to say thank you for...

‘Brilliant’ Jenni Murray ‘Liberating, intoxicating’ Zoe Williams ‘Why, after decades of social progress, is motherhood still so much harder than it needs to be?’ Before they become mothers, women are repeatedly reminded that their biological clock is ticking. Once pregnant, a...

Bloomsbury presents Inferno written and read by Catherine Cho. ______________________ 'A beautifully written account of postpartum psychosis, and the ties, blessings and burdens of family' – NIGELLA LAWSON SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE...

An unflinchingly honest and disarmingly funny memoir from an exhausted mom who broke under the pressure to do it all, faced her past, found herself in the rubble, and then paved her way out by telling the truth “Libby Ward has written the motherhood manifesto we didn’t know we needed. Read...

Following on from the success of Your Baby, Your Birth, renowned birth and parenting Coach Hollie de Cruz applies her much-loved approach to the first year of motherhood. This empowering and thought-provoking book will guide you through the ever-changing landscape of your baby's first year, month by month, and will help you feel assured that you know your baby best.

What if Augustine's Confessions had been written not by a man, but by a mother? How might her tales of desire, temptation, and transformation differ from his? In this memoir, Natalie Carnes describes giving birth to a daughter and beginning a story of conversion strikingly unlike Augustine's - even as his journey becomes a surprising companion to her own. The challenges Carnes recounts will be familiar to many parents. She wonders what and how much she should ask her daughter to suffer in resisting racism, patriarchy, and injustice. 

'If there's any message I want people to take from this book, it is hope that, even in the hardest of times, life is worth living, one precious moment at a time.' Vicky Phelan When Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018 - having...

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Mother Ship, written and read by Francesca Segal. ‘Heart-wrenching, heart-warming and heartfelt – Mother Ship is a beautifully crafted, warts-and-all love letter to our wonderful NHS’ Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt ‘Our greatest...

Ariane Beeston is a child-protection worker and newly registered psychologist when she gives birth to her first child – and very quickly begins to experience scary breaks with reality. With medication, the support of her husband, psychotherapy and, ultimately, time, Ariane rebuilds herself.

Motherhood is beautiful, challenging, exhausting, joyful, and deeply transformative, and sometimes, it is all of these things at once. In Motherhood Reflections, Shaza Hamid shares honest and heartfelt reflections on the everyday realities of motherhood, the uncertainty, the exhaustion, the...

'An immensely powerful reflection on the ways motherhood has been politicised, fetishised and used to control and suppress women, narrated by the author' Guardian, Audiobook of the Week In a world where women have more choices than ever, society nevertheless continues to exert the stigma and...

A searing portrait of a mother’s body—a resurrection and reclamation of pleasure after abuse, a study of intergenerational trauma, and a love letter to the bodies of women: as alive and unbound as the teeming Mississippi wilds that bear witness Four months postpartum with her second child...

Early motherhood is supposed to be joyous, but for Aaisha Alvi those early days were ruined by terrifying thoughts about her baby and family. Her experience was the antithesis of everything she had ever been told about motherhood, far beyond the trials of breastfeeding or putting her baby to sleep. Aaisha did recover and began to enjoy motherhood. She was thrilled when she fell pregnant again. Sadly, that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, and the psychosis returned. This time, however, she was blindsided by the unimaginable: voices urged her to stab her daughter and to harm innocent people.