A Good Childhood

Dec 26, 2024 6:18 PM

Author:Richard Layard,Judy Dunn

A Good Childhood

Every day the newspapers lament the problems facing our children - broken homes, pressures to eat and drink, the stress of exams. The same issues are discussed in every pub and at every dinner party. But is life really more difficult for children than it was, and if so why? And how can we make it better?

This book, which is a result of a two year investigation by the Children's Society and draws upon the work of the UK's leading experts in many fields, explores the main stresses and influences to which every child is exposed - family, friends, youth culture, values, and schooling, and will make recommendations as to how we can improve the upbringing of our children. It tackles issues which affect every child, whatever their background, and questions and provides solutions to the belief that life has become so extraordinarily difficult for children in general.

The experts make 30 specific recommendations, written not from the point of view of academics, but for the general reader - above all for parents and teachers. We expect publication to be a major event and the centre of widespread media attention.

Reviews

Compassionate and sensitive, Julie Lynn Evans' book should become a bible for every adult interested in helping children from fragmented homes.

—— Nigella Lawson

Julie Lynn Evans is an original therapist. She is an active listener and by using the creative arts can discover a will to communicate in the most unforthcoming young person. She is creative herself, energetic, proactive and resourceful ... modern therapy carried out with true and inspiring mastery.

—— Professor Peter Hill, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

I can't remember when a book made me more angry. Lawrence's book should be compulsory reading

—— Allison Pearson, on Not on the Label , Evening Standard

Clare should be cloned and made freely available to all mothers!

—— Debra Stottor, Editor, Junior Pregnancy & Baby

As a first-time mum, Clare gave me the confidence to breast-feed successfully and to appreciate that, with the right technique, it can be a totally pain-free and profoundly bonding experience with your baby. It was only because of Clare that I managed to do seven months

—— Trinny Woodall

Despite the darkness of the rooms she re-enters, her book isn't gloomy in the least... Extracts from her journal and faxes to Herman offset the main narrative, which darts back and forth in time. It's a structure that works wonderfully well... However unforgiving her detail, tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner is the message of this extraordinary book

—— Blake Morrison , Guardian

Having read her family memoir, a book that engrosses and horrifies in equal measure, it is hard not to be reminded of Larkin's famous axiom: 'They fuck you up your mum and dad.'... 'Blackburn's writing transcends the frightening idiosyncrasies of her upbringing. Her prose is understated and evocative, despite the desperate truths that lurk beneath.'... 'It would be easy for Blackburn to attribute blame or to seek explanation, but her refusal to do so gives this triptych portrait an integrity and honesty that it could otherwise lack.

—— Observer

The fact that I was unable to put [the book] down is proof of how well she tells [the story], and of how such an experience, if described with real skill, honesty, and sensitivity, will make a valuable book, however many others of a similar kind have been published.... I ended it feeling very glad indeed that I had overcome my first disinclination to begin it

—— Diana Athill , Literary Review

[Blackburn] has written an exceptionally perceptive and fascinating book, a tribute by a remarkable daughter to the resilience of filial love.

—— Anne Chisholm , Sunday Telegraph

In this memoir she describes her eccentric, dangerous, wonderful bohemian parents...Blackburn emerged from this turmoil as a fine writer, and this book is full of understanding and reconciliation

—— Margaret Drabble , New Statesman

a rich account...brilliant vignettes

—— Camilla Long , Sunday Times

This piercing memoir paints in vivid colours Julia Blackburn's nightmarish childhood

—— Alison Flood , The Telegraph

Blackburn tells us about these things in a compelling authorial voice which is by turns numb and incredibly sensitive

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Brutally honest book ...deeply moving testament to the love that can somehow survive

—— Aimee Shalan , Guardian

An extraordinary family memoir... A bohemian classic

—— Week

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