Holding the Baby

Author Nell Frizzell
Narrator Nell Frizzell
Publisher Transworld
Publish Date 1 January 1970
Run Time 8 hours and 44 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Autobiography: writers, Biography and non-fiction prose, Family and health, Feminism and feminist theory, Health systems and services, Health, illness and addiction: social aspects, Medicine: general issues, Memoirs, Parenting: advice and issues, Society and Social Sciences, Sociology: family and relationships, Women’s health.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

It's time to share the motherload.

A memoir culminating in a manifesto, Holding the Baby sets out to understand why we still treat early parenthood as an individual slog rather than a shared cultural responsibility. Tracing her own journey to the nadir of sleeplessness via social retreat and murderous rage, Frizzell draws on the latest research to explore:

- What effect does parenting have on your career?

- How can we make childcare affordable and fit for purpose?

- If parenting is so hard, why does anyone ever do it more than once?

Funny, reassuring and radically ambitious, Holding the Baby sheds light on the ways in which we fail new parents, and offers a rallying crying that we fight for a better alternative.

©2023 Nell Frizzell (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

‘Makes excellent, radical sense’

The Times

‘My favourite person on the politics of parenthood. Read it and feel comforted, cheered and galvanized (even when your brain and body are melting).’

Pandora Sykes

‘Exhilarating, infuriating, urgent and human … an excellent journalistic investigation. I think this book is required reading for the child free, as it will help us to understand and support the choices of all parents.’

Daisy Buchanan

‘A blazing, brilliant read, combining style and message to powerful effect … compassionate, convincing and funny.’

Amy Liptrot

‘Honest, unflinching and necessary – alleviates parental guilt and might even encourage you to forgive your own!’

Sara Pascoe

‘Holding the Baby is the sanest, most gorgeous thing on capitalism’s poisonous effect on parenthood I’ve ever read. I was hooting and hollering by the manifesto at the end. Because it’s Nell Frizzell it’s funny and brisk and also because it’s Nell Frizzell it’s urgent and incisive. It opens your eyes to a vastly healthier and utterly beautiful way to support babies (and people who used to be babies.) I’m grateful for this book.’

Rob Delaney

‘I love Nell Frizzell’s writing and I love her spirit. I devoured Holding the Baby, especially the way it combined the colour of a memoir with the intent of a manifesto. Nell has such an original, forceful and also, crucially, very funny take on parenthood in general and motherhood specifically. This is a timely and important book.’

Clover Stroud

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