Do any of the following apply to you? (Answer yes or no). Have you ever been, have you ever had, are you about to have, or are you considering at any time in the future having a baby?
Babies are strange. They enter our lives, and things are never the same again - it's "Year Zero", for us and for them. In this extraordinary book, Ian Sansom (father of three) writes about human beings in their first year of life, and the cataclysmic effect they have on those around them.
While most books about babies are either manuals crammed with milestones and measurements or sentimental reflections on the nature of parenthood, 'The Truth About Babies' is a book both honest and unique. It is written as a series of alphabetic meditations on every aspect of the first year of life - from the Apgar Test to zippers, and everything in between, from bath-times to double buggies.
Sansom's own sharp and tender observations are juxtaposed with those of other thinkers and writers: Nabokov on the experience of pushing a pram, DH Lawrence on holding a sleeping child, Ted Hughes on nappies and other examples of the wise and the bizarre from the Bible, from literature, history, pop, culture and folklore. It is profound, philosophical and earthy and very, very funny.
