What not to expect when you're expecting - Zoe Williams

A refreshingly frank and funny take on motherhood written by one of the Guardian 's most popular columnists.

There are more pregnancy and motherhood advice books out there than you can shake a Clearblue stick at. Most of them are earnest, some of them are finger-wagging, other seemed 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, What Not to Expect When You're Expecting 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, arily 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?' Witty, wry and occasionally even informative, What Not to Expect When You're Expecting
is the refreshing antidote to standard parenting books.