How Not to Be a Perfect Mother : The Crafty Mother's Guide to a Quiet Life. This item is unavailable.How Not to Be a Perfect Mother : The Crafty Mother's Guide to a Quiet Life

This is a book which sets out to show that even the most unpromising madonna can survive the years of looking after babies and toddlers. Full of down-to-earth tips and anecdotes, this is a battle-manual for the mother on the front line - going from pregnancy to pre-schoolers, and taking in sibling fights, fraught outings, nannies and careers along the way.

LIBBY PURVES was a late starter, having her first baby at thirty-two. Previously she practised for motherhood by carrying heavy tape recorders round all day (on BBC Radio Oxford), getting up at 3.30am (as presenter of the Radio 4 Today programme), and by refereeing contentious arguments (as chair of BBC TV's Choices). Further useful experience was gained as a barmaid, soothing fractious drunks and mopping floors; and as the editor-in-chief -- for six exciting months -- of the society magazine Tatler. Armed with all this experience, she set out with the utterly misplaced confidence to have a family of five children; so far, she has managed two, and is beginning to flag a little. Libby Purves has written and edited several books, and writes for a number of newspapers and magazines. Now she lives in Suffolk with her husband, Paul Heiney, her son of eleven and daughter of nine. Once a week, she escapes from home life by travelling to London to present the Radio 4 chat show, Midweek, in which only two people are ever allowed to talk at once, and nobody's nose needs wiping. She is also the author of How Not to Raise a Perfect Child, How Not to be a Perfect Family and One Summer's Grace (available from HarperCollins), in which the family sails a small boat round Britain, but freely admits that they weren't too perfect at that either.