Holding
The Baby
It's time to share the motherload.
Holding the Baby is a memoir, culminating in a manifesto. It asks, and in some cases explains, how we can make early parenting better; and why we still treat early parenthood as an individual slog rather than a shared cultural responsibility. With incredible illustrations by Becky Barnicoat it features eye watering anecdotes, brutal honesty and insightful interviews with psychologists, health visitors, parents, insomniacs, campaigners and even some men.
'My favourite person on the politics of parenthood' Pandora Sykes
'Exhilarating, infuriating, urgent and human' Daisy Buchanan
'A blazing, brilliant read ... compassionate, convincing, funny!' Amy Liptrot
'Honest, unflinching and necessary' Sara Pascoe
'Funny and brisk ... urgent and incisive' Rob Delaney
'A timely and important book' Clover Stroud
Square One
Hanna is single, her dad is single. They are stuck in a small flat together. They are in equal parts desperate to get laid, and desperate for the other to not.
What does it mean to be a modern, independent woman in an unaffordable city, with an uncertain job, an unknowable body and small tippex heart on the wall outside your childhood home?
A funny, sometimes poignant, totally fictional book about fathers, daughters, heartbreak, housing, love, longing and arguments about toothpaste.
‘Electrifyingly good...sharply comic and perfectly poignant.’
- Daisy Buchanan
‘A fresh, funny novel filled with truths about relationships and perfect details. I tore though it.’
- Amy Liptrot
The Panic Years
‘Nell Frizzell’s writing on womanhood and motherhood is as informative as it is poetic.’
- Dolly Alderton
‘I don’t know a single woman my age who hasn’t experienced the phenomenon that Nell articulates so bloody perfectly. Her writing is funny and beautiful and smart and I can’t tell you how necessary this book is!’
- Josie Long
'Nell Frizzell is a master. I particularly recommend this book to men… it is a visceral exploration of one young woman’s life that has immediately applicable lessons for us all. Vital reading. The Panic Years is also fun, funny, and warm. I love it dearly!’
- Rob Delaney
‘Lyrical, moving and thorough, this is a memoir, a feminist text and a piece of social commentary. Every millennial woman should have it on her bookshelf.’
- Pandora Sykes
'Searingly honest, witty and moving. For anyone who knows what it's like to simultaneously want to weep with joy and throw your child out of the window, Frizzell is a very welcome voice in the conversation on motherhood.'
- Vogue
'The Panic Years made me laugh and it made me cry. There's a rare tenderness to this book that comes from not having felt seen before. It's for our generation, and Nell gets it. She understands and respects us.'
- Rhiannon Cosslett
Buy it now at Waterstones, Blackwells, Bookshop, Foyles, Hive and Amazon.
At the Pond
’My favourite contribution, though, is by journalist Nell Frizzell. Her essay “The Lifeguard’s Perspective” is just that — Frizzell actually spent two summers working as a lifeguard at Kenwood Ladies’ Pond. From this vantage point she sees “the mischief and human drama that unfolds across this tiny and enormous pond”. That includes a huge carp, “an older lady we christened Carole, [who] came up to the surface. She was probably ill, moving towards the end of her life with a flash of fame; literally a moment in the sun. Swimmers were terrified. There were screams, yelps, cries for help.”’