Fascinating ... O’Mara argues [walking] is intimately connected to our bodies, our brains, and ultimately how we exist as a species

In Praise of Walking is both informative and persuasive enough to rouse the most ardent couch potato – perhaps saving humanity before our lifestyle consumes our brains completely

Convincing and compelling ... In Praise of Walking is peppered with insights about everything from 19th-century poets and flâneurs to modern-day experiments with subjects playing video games in fMRI scanners

Walking makes us healthier, happier and brainier ... [O'Mara] knows this not only through personal experience, but from cold, hard data

Full of insights… an accessible and thought-provoking discussion of walking as a key to human success

A book that will leave you itching to go out for a good old-fashioned stroll

A fascinating new book that examines the multitudinous benefits of this form of locomotion

Like a poem to walking… [and] the science that might help convince planners to prioritise walking as a means of getting around

Forget apples. A walk a day really will keep the doctor away

[In Praise of Walking] it provides an antidote to the many miseries that can accumulate because of our modern, sedentary lifestyle

Whether you’re an avid hiker or simply like to get out and do the school run on foot, this book will make you appreciate the physical, mental and societal benefits of getting outdoors on two feet.

An informative yet witty book on the importance of walking for our health and wellbeing, and for societies in general

Compelling… A new angle on our favourite pastime

A fascinating read… This informative book…will rouse you from the sofa and make you want to get moving

Ebullient, playful and creative... By turns caustic, astute and very, very funny.

This is the first time I've read anything about motherhood that didn't bore me... It's all really unconventional but laugh-out-loud funny.

Frank and fearless... a glorious validation to all parents doing it solo.

Hits that sweet spot between laugh-out-loud funny, with its accounts of first dates, LA wackiness and personal mishaps, and a lyrical lament for a life of paternity tests, an absent father and the absence of raves.

Joyfully crude and hilarious... Heawood is refreshingly unapologetic.

Achingly tender and snort-inducingly funny.

Thought-provoking and insightful.

Unflinchingly honest, emotionally raw, and surprisingly sweet.

Raw and funny, Heawood’s memoir celebrates the messiness of life and motherhood with boldness, panache, and unexpected moments of real poignancy. An uncensored and eccentric delight.

Heawood writes with warmth and wit about life as a single mother.

Rejoice! One of our favourite journalists Sophie Heawood – known for her hilarity and honesty – publishes her first book this year. It's a memoir about being a single mother when you haven't quite worked out how to look after yourself.

[Heawood] shares her story with huge wit and sharp observation.

A tender and hilarious account of her life as a single mother.

This [is an] incredibly candid and often LOLs memoir about how it feels to raise a baby on your own when you're more into negronis than nappies.

Reading Heawood's often outrageous and occasionally undignified anecdotes was the perfect tonic during the second national lockdown. Though hilariously funny, her story of accidental pregnancy is also tender and poignant, with her accounts of motherhood feeling far less common through a single-parent lens.

A tender and funny account of single parenthood

Packed with humour and honesty, it's also tender, moving and relatable, detailing Heawood's own evolution and growth alongside her young daughter's, and the highs and lows of solo parenting.