Lucy AtkinsCritiques

A taught and compulsively clever psychological thriller that you can’t put down!

A live-in nanny, a dysfunctional blended family, a selectively mute little girl and the hallowed grounds of Oxford University all come together with unexpected results.
All told from Dee’s p.o.v as she is being interviewed by the police about the disseverance of her employers eight year old daughter, Felicity, this is not the fastest paced thriller or the most action packed but it is full of some great characters who are in turn endearing, comical, vile and downright despicable as well as parts of Oxford that get brought to life across the pages, it is most certainly a page turner of a book.

The whole book is brimming with tension and atmosphere as the events lead up to Felicity’s disappearance and beyond to a conclusion that you probably won’t see coming.

If you are a fan of psychological suspenses then you are in for a treat with this book.
I am a relatively slow reader but I gobbled this book up in two sittings as I just couldn’t put it down!

Magpie Lane will be published on 02 April 2020 and is available to pre-order now

4.5 * Really enjoyed this one read it in three sittings

Dee works as a nanny in Oxford, and has had a series of stints with visiting faculty and administrators, working for the university on a temporary basis. She has just finished one such assignment when the next one falls in her lap: caring for Felicity, the 8-year-old daughter of Nick Law, a new College Master, and his Danish wife Mariah. Felicity’s mother died four years earlier, and she has been selectively mute ever since, speaking only with Nick. Dee sets out to earn her trust.

But readers also know that one evening Felicity disappears, and the media and law enforcement launch a major campaign to find her. The novel chronicles, in parallel, the events following Felicity’s disappearance and those leading up to it. As tiny details are revealed, it becomes clear there’s more to Dee than she wants others to know.

The full picture emerges slowly. Author Lucy Atkins expertly weaves a number of plot threads together, and most of the details are revealed by an unreliable narrator. It kept me guessing all the way to the end and even now, while I know more about what happened to Felicity, there’s much left unsaid. This was a great read.

This is a psychological thriller involving an unreliable narrator, Dee, who is nanny to the child of an Oxford Master. When the novel opens, the nanny is being questioned by the police after the child, 8 year old Felicity, has gone missing. The story goes back to tell of Dee's prior life, her engagement to care for Felicity, and the troubled history of Felicity, who has been mute since the death of her mother several years before.

This was a competent mystery. I especially enjoyed a lot of the background bits about the goings on and traditions of the university at Oxford. There's a real sense of place, and also some information about some of Oxford's perhaps lesser-known attractions.

3 stars

A thriller about an Oxford nanny whose charge is a troubled eight year old girl with selective mutism. The girl's father and her stepmother are far to busy to spend time with her and they both live in the attic of an old house, which feels haunted. There's even a small, secret room in the child's room that might be a priest's hole, but is supposed to stay locked, because the wallpaper inside contains arsenic. At the opening of the novel, the police are questioning the nanny about the girl, who disappeared during one of the nanny's rare weekend's off. At first, she's sure they just want background on the family, but as the questioning continues, she realizes that she might be a suspect and, as things are revealed about her past and her time in this position, the reader begins to think they might be right.

So this was a fun thriller. Nothing substantial, but the characters were interesting, if broadly drawn. I don't generally like when the reader has access to the narrator's thoughts and yet information the narrator knows is held back, but it was not too annoying here. I'm not sure whether the author exerted great restraint in ending the novel where she did, or if she took the easy way out, but it was different.

Magpie Lane. Lucy Atkins. 2020. I downloaded this Kindle book because of the title-I thought I’d read that it was going to be a PBS series, and I wanted to read it before I watched the series. This isn’t the book the series will be based on, but it was an interesting novel. The troubled child of a Master at Oxford has disappeared, and the nanny is being interviewed by the police. The Master is new to the college, and he and his Danish wife are not particularly caring parents and are having trouble being accepted by the old Oxford crowd according to the nanny. The child doesn’t speak, has nightmares and is an emotional mess. The house they live in may be haunted. The more the nanny talks to the police the more we realize that the nanny may have some problems too.

This is that rare treat, a book that keeps you gripped and makes you wish you could keep reading it till it's finished.

The pace of the story was perfect. Lots of references but mystery to Dee's past.

Wonderful descriptions of Oxford, where I visited last year, including some of the rooms described at Christ Church. The sense of location was spot on throughout, in Scotland and London too.

There was a quirk in which most dialogue was wrapped within quotation marks, but all instances of police conversations were denoted by dashes, not quotes. Took a few chapters to get my head around those. I also wondered about a part of the story around phones and I've posted this as a question in case the author is about.

This is my fourth book from Lucy Atkins and I'm looking forward to her next thrillers. She's a talented author and one of my favourites.

This was well-written, with strong characterization, although bizarrely the relationship that was the least convincing for me was Dee's with Felicity. I liked Linklater and his 27 years of working on his DPhil. I found the novel rather long, and I became a little weary of all the 'presences' in the house and the way the door to the priest's hole was forever opening itself. The ending was good - it had been gradually sign-posted, but was nevertheless something of a twist.½

When Dee returns from an overnight trip to London, the Oxford College Master’s Lodging is a mess: Felicity, the girl she nannies and who suffers from selective mutism has vanished. Her Danish stepmother Mariah never bonded with the girl and since she has given to her own boy, she is totally exhausted and incapable of taking care of this extraordinary 8-year-old. Felicity must have sleepwalked, something she frequently does during her nightmares which have intensified since they moved to the old spooky house. For the police, Dee is one of the prime suspects because Nick Law, Felicity’s father, is convinced of her guilt. So they interview her over several days to get an understanding of the girl’s special situation and the relationship she had with her loving nanny who could never do her any harm, could she?

Lucy Atkins’s “Magpie Lane” is a very clever and creepy novel which brilliantly conveys the atmosphere of an old, dark house where you immediately believe ghosts could wander and haunt the inhabitants. Apart from this, she has created lovely characters who are not only very peculiar but with whom you bond straightaway even though some doubt about Dee’s involvement in Felicity’s vanishing is looming over the story.

I totally adored how Atkins uses the old university town in her novel. First of all, the house itself which provides a long and spine-chilling history, but also the cemeteries and walk ways which have a lot to tell. Apart from the surrounding, the people there also seem to live in the past which is especially tricky for a modern woman like Mariah. Even though she, on the one hand, is kind of “evil stepmother”, things are not that simple. I can understand how frustrating her situation is there: she is just “the wife of”, ignored for not being a real part of the Oxford community and everything with which she normally can charm people does not work here. Additionally, the situation with Felicity is undoubtedly highly challenging for her and then, things become even more dire with her own child crying day in, day out from colic.

Even though Dee is telling the story through the police interviews, Felicity is at the centre. This girl is surely a challenge for everybody but due to Dee’s sensibility you come to love and understand her increasingly. Her nightmares and obsession with death is somehow bizarre and unnerving yet understandable when you get to know her story. My personal highlight was the character of Linklater. The eccentric historian who seems to be completely unaware of the world outside his head fits perfectly in a place like Oxford and plays an important part in creating the somehow Gothic atmosphere.

Atkins’s way of foreshadowing adds to the suspenseful atmosphere and makes it a wonderful read that I enjoyed thoroughly.

This was really creepy at times, when Tess feels like somebody is watching her, the phone rings and nobody is there and things get moved in the house. My heart was pounding on several occasions and I felt that something terrible was going to happen, and felt relieved rather than disappointed that there was no knife wielding killer in the kitchen.

I felt sorry for Tess, pregnant and often alone in a strange country with less than friendly neighbours. Her next door neighbour, Helena, was portrayed as a nasty piece of work and I could almost hear the witch theme from the Wizard of Oz in my head every time she appeared.

The passages relating to Tess's pregnancy were clearly from the author's own experiences and were written quite beautifully. I really felt the miracle of life growing with each little somersault and hiccup!

So this wasn't a blood thirsty thriller but it was actually quite clever in the fact that it made me examine my own misconceptions of people. I admit I jumped on the bandwagon of Greg having something to hide and whatever it was, he was guilty. Perhaps he was wrongly accused, and he's just trying to live a normal life without the past haunting him. I felt quite guilty when Tess drove to the cabin and it was almost a picture of perfect family life - Greg was reading with Joe tucked up in bed upstairs - what was I expecting? Joe to be thrown off a ski-lift? Yes, probably but this reads more like an observation of real life - Greg has perhaps tried to escape a misunderstanding in his past, but when it catches up with him it's too late to untangle the lies.

A creepy page turner that will have you questioning who is telling the truth.

bookbox; very good. When Kal's mother dies, and Kal is cleaning out her studio, she finds a set of postcards sent every year for the past 38 years from an art studio in Canada. Kal sets off with her toddler to British Columbia, searching for answers to her mother's early life and why she abandoned it all for a life in the UK

A page turner with a disappointing ending
It wasn't sinister enough for me

This was engaging enough to keep me turning the pages, if slightly predictable. It was just creepy enough to keep a bit of the mystery going, but I have to say I had parts of this figured out pretty early on.

It was more menacing than thriller like, being that Greg's character is pretty much a control freak. And other things, but I don't want to add any spoilers. Let's just say that a comparison between certain characteristics of people and his profession about halfway through the book make perfect sense for his character as a whole by the end of it.

I was a bit disappointed by Tess's character. Since the focus was on Greg, her character wasn't quite fleshed out enough, and she seemed weak, and too persuaded by love.

On a personal level, I did relate to Tess and Joe's difficulty adjusting to life in the US after moving there from London, being that I went through a similar adjustment period when I moved from the US to Canada.

A compelling plot,a great story. All elements work so well to make it good story.

I have always enjoyed books that show English and American cultural differences and to get a thriller based on it, wow what a treat.

For a complete review please click on the link below or paste it onto your browser.

http://onerightword.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-other-child-lucy-atkins.html

Professor Olivia Sweetman is a historian living a life she never could have imagined she would call her own. She has a successful career as a TV presenter, is a mother to three children, and has a husband whose talent is just as impressive as her own. Olivia is about to release a book about a woman named Annabel, who was one of the first female surgeons in the Victorian era. The book, titled in it's main characters name sake, is slated to become a best seller with a movie option in the works. Just where did the inspiration for Annabel come from?

Olivia stumbled upon Annabel's diary at a quaint museum, where she also met the woman who would eventually allow her access. Vivian Tester is the caretaker for the Ileford Manor, which is the former home to Annabel. The only surviving relative is living in a nursing home, but Vivian is willing to work as Olivia's research assistant on the project and help find whatever information she needs for her book. Vivian is the complete opposite of Olivia. She's older, socially awkward, and obsessed with her dog. Despite their differences, the duo work well together and before they know it Olivia's book is slated for publication. Hidden behind the scenes is a dark truth that could bring down the success of this book and Olivia's career. Just how far is Olivia willing to go to keep the truth hidden?

THE NIGHT VISITOR is a story unraveled through the perspective of both Olivia and Vivian. The book starts off on the night of the launch for Olivia's book, where clearly the woman is expertly hiding a meltdown under the shell of a smile. The story then immediately rewinds to a few months prior to this evening the reader is led through the series of events that lead to Olivia's current state of mind. Each perspective has an unsettling undertone to it, where the reader can tell they are not quite getting the whole truth. Eerie events starts occurring and the truths of each woman's life begin to seep out as they confront each other closer to the book's launch party. THE NIGHT VISITOR is a quick and captivating read that will keep you up late at night frantically flipping pages to get to the truth. This one was nearly perfect for me, with an ending that I was not expecting, however, there were a few storylines that I felt were left unresolved. Overall, this book was an unnerving, atmospheric thrill ride that I did not want to put down! I highly recommend THE NIGHT VISITOR to any bookworm looking for a summer thriller read!

A special thank you to Quercus USA for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Two women. Two viewpoints. Vivian and Olivia plus a lot of dung beetles! Olivia is an attractive TV historian and author whose family life isn't so great, unlike her professional life which is very much on the up. She finds out about an exciting Victorian diary which is in Vivian's possession. Vivian is the polar opposite to Olivia, awkward, clumsy, gauche and not terribly attractive. The problem is that Vivian knows something and Olivia is terrified the secret will out and ruin her reputation. Wasn't sure about this book to start with, but soon found myself totally engrossed in this "battle". Neither lady was particularly nice and both had plenty of flaws and it was fascinating discovering what made them behave in the way they did. A slow burner, but still manages to capture the readers' attention quickly - even managing to make dung beetles sound interesting! Hope there will be a follow up to this story.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

Kal has never felt like she truly knows her mother. When her mother passes from cancer, Kal is determined to discover the secrets of her mother's past. Taking only her son, leaving her possibly-cheating husband behind, Kal sets off to British Columbia. She heads to a remote island where a woman who once knew her mother lives, a woman who sent postcard after postcard simply stating "Thinking of You".

I love a book about secrets from the past, and this definitely had plenty! I really liked the way Atkins used flashbacks to heighten the suspense and the mystery.

Atkins has also clearly done her research on orca whales-there is a lot of fascinating information about them contained in this story.

This book could have been shorter. I have absolutely nothing against long books, but this was one that felt too stretched out. It would have benefited from a little editing in that regard.

Some of the secrets were a little too predictable as well. I was able to call one of the biggest ones from pretty early on.

This was a good read, but not one I would say you have to run out and get right now. If you ever get to it, it's enjoyable. (It's one of those where rating it is tricky-I would give it 3 stars, because it is good, but didn't enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed other 3 star books.)

Clare Mackintosh's blurb on the cover of Lucy Atkin's novel The Other Child caught my eye and introduced me to a new (to me) author.

British single mom Tess falls head over heels for American born surgeon Greg. When he is offered a promotion in America, Tess and Greg decide to marry before moving to the US. That and there's a new brother or sister on the way for her son Joe.

But everything is decidedly not rosy when they arrive in Boston. The house is too large and sterile. The neighbourhood is like a showcase, the neighbours are standoffish, if not downright rude, Tess is alone much of the time and Joe is having trouble assimilating. But things only go downhill from there - is Greg having an affair with the neighbour? Who is that dark figure she sees standing staring at her house? Has someone been in the house? Tess thought she knew her husband well, but now begins to doubt him - and starts looking into his past. And what she finds begs the question: 'How well do you know your husband?'

This is the kind of book I love to read. You know - if it was a movie, you'd be yelling at the actor - 'Don't go in the basement!". That's what I wanted to do - yell at Tess - 'Can't you see he's lying!' But no, Tess keeps making excuses for his behaviour, for what might be going on, for the little white lies...

There were a few convenient plot devices that I questioned - it's my pragmatic nature. But, I let it go and kept reading. I wanted to keep turning pages - it's that kind of book. What will happen next? Is Tess really in danger? What secrets is Greg hiding? The tension builds with every new chapter.

I was a bit unhappy with some of the choices Tess made regarding Joe's care. The ending isn't quite what I imagined the final pages would bring - I would have liked a different outcome. Even so, I found The Other Child quite entertaining. Watch for Lucy Atkins' new book, The Night Visitor, coming in June 2017. I'll be picking it up.½

I received an ARC through Goodreads.
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This was an interesting story, alternating between the present (mostly the present) and the past, telling Kali and Elena's stories.

Elena is such a fascinating character, I wish we had actually gotten to know her, and not just through Kali's memories or brief flashes of Elena's life. She is such a strong and amazing character, it's sad that Kali doesn't get to discover this until after Elena has passed away. Her studies on the orca and her adventures up North were exciting to read.

Susannah, I had the oddest feeling about her and her connection with Elena. The "secret" that everyone was trying to cover up ended up nearly costing Kali and her loved ones' lives. Yes, Kali was reckless in taking Finn and flying half way around the world to attempt to discover who Elena really was. Sure, it can be part of the grief that she is experiencing, along with a possible affair that her husband (Doug) may or maybe not be having. The more time we spend with Kali, the less I like or sympathize with her.

There were parts of the story that I didn't like. I get that it's suppose to be a mystery of sorts, and it is certainly a dark secret. But all that tug of war for information between Kali and Susannah gets really tiresome and boring. I know Susannah doesn't have the most sound mind frame, aka has a psychotic breakdown, but everything she did should have sounded off very loud alarm bells in Kali. Quite honestly, there were parts of the story that just doesn't sit well with me. Like Kali running off, and no one with the exception of Doug thought to fly after her to stop her from her "quest", especially when Kali leaves odd messages here and there to her family. Like hello, alarm bells ringing yet?!

The ending, wow what a shocker! Who would have though?! It was certainly quite the twist.

A special thank you to Quercus (US) and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. for an honest review.

THE MISSING ONE, a gripping and emotional debut by Lucy Atkins, taking readers on a journey from California, England, to British Columbia with an intriguing mystery thriller of dark family secrets—bridging the gap from past to present.

Kali seeks to unravel her unknown past. Her mom’s life is a mystery, having died of cancer, and her grandparents are deceased, as well. Her dad is not forthcoming with any information. Kali often felt her mother favored Alice, her sister. Kali wants to be a good mother and feels a strong desire to explore her past.

As she is clearing out her mom, Elena’s art studio or storage, Kal discovers some postcards, from a Canadian gallery owner named Susannah. Always, “thinking of you.” Did her mom have an affair? Who is Graham? She reads this letter which has her questioning if Alice knew about the affair? The postcards have Canadian stamps, though one is sent from Taos, NM, and another from Seattle and a few from further afield—Quito, Moscow, and Durban. The later postcards come from the Susannah Gillespie Gallery.

With her ten month toddler, Finn Kali impulsively flies to Vancouver to meet Susannah, (even though she has not notified her of her impending arrival), who has sent post cards to her mother, Elena for over thirty years. In addition, another impulse – she suspects her husband Doug is having an affair.

Of course, now that she is here in this remote area of Canada, there is bad weather, heavy storms, killer whales, and she is fighting for her life as well as her son, Finn. Who is this woman Susannah? Is she dangerous? Does she have more family and if so where are they? What a chilling adventure!

Kali travels halfway across the world looking for her mother; putting Finn in terrible danger, and herself and possibly another life, but the truth has been staring at her all the time from the crease in the wedding photo. However, she could not see it because she was too busy running away, spinning stories, and pressing them into blanks.

It is easy to forget, when you are running away from something that you are always running toward something else. “Sometimes you need to run away in order to get somewhere.”

A very intriguing tale, as have been reading quite a few novels about parent’s withholding information about the past, allowing their children to go to great lengths, while they are trying to protect dark secrets and ultimately cause more problems, by doing so.

The Missing One offers vivid descriptions of the islands off the coast, nature, beauty, whales, orcas, and other elements of the sea, as the book switches from the present, one woman’s quest for answers and a mother’s mysterious past.

Even though I was frustrated at Kali's behavior at times, the beauty of the novel, lies in the narrative— almost poetic, the vivid descriptions, the setting, the wildlife and connection to human nature.

As Kali discovers her mother was a pioneering orca researcher—an activist and scientist in the 70s— the storylines intersect,nd secrets are unraveled as the tension builds. Like the whales, her mother lives in two world: breathing in one, then diving beneath.

An ideal selection for book clubs and discussions, with an array of viewpoints and motives; from those trying to protect one another, by withholding the truth.

“The captive orca was trying so hard to stop her baby from hurting itself on the sides of the tank that she forgot to feed it. The instinct to protect trumped the instinct to nurture.” -- Perhaps Kali reacted as well and learns motherhood is triumphant, an extraordinary force not to be messed with.

A mix of women’s fiction, strong female friendships, relationships, suspense, thriller, family drama, animal rights, activist, and feminist—for an engrossing and emotional page-turner thriller. An ongoing main theme of parental love; a strong and powerful tale of motherhood, a parents’ love for their child, and the lengths they will go to save their them; with parallels of the orcas protecting their own as they stray--similar to human dynamics. An author to watch...look forward to more.

On a side note: With similar subject matter, I am strongly reminded of one of my favorite US authors, Mary Alice Monroe.Having read many of her books, she is known for her intimate portrayals of women's lives, and an active environmentalist; she draws themes for her novels from nature and the parallels with human nature—drawing attention to various endangered species and the human connection to the natural world.

I really don’t know why I completed this book other than the fact that I am a compulsive book finisher, but I am glad that I did.

I really did not like the character of Kali; she was a whiner and winger of the highest order. She set out on her own mission heading nothing and no one. Kali is totally self-centred almost to a point of obsession. She is a mother of a two-year old who she takes on a trek with very little thought or planning! Who in their right mind would do that but oh wait she’s grieving (if that is an excuse). Her reason for the trek was to find out about her mother. To be honest though who really knows what their mother was like before they were born? Children only really ever learn what their parents are willing to tell them.

The other character equally unlikeable was Susannah. She too was selfish, stand offish and untrustworthy but for entirely different reasons.

This reader felt that the wonderful descriptions of the rugged landscape were made often at the expense of the storyline. Likewise the many conversations between Susannah and Kali, Kali and Doug, and Kali and her son were repetitive beyond belief causing the story to flag in all the wrong places.

I had already guessed part of the plot line but not everything. The book was a plodder until about 80% when it took off at a break neck pace but honestly the things Alice didn’t realise had been done to her I was like WHHHHAATTT!!!

I do not think the payoff warranted the time spent reading this novel and will find it difficult to read another book by this author.

Full Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley for an honest review.

This has a gothic atmosphere to it that I liked very much and it kept me on the edge of my seat most of the time and was a hard book to put down.

Kal( Kali) is in a bad place her mother just died and she found some texts on her husband’s phone that don’t look good, and while cleaning out her mother’s things she finds some postcards from a woman she has never heard of and in her mental state she decides to go half way around the world to talk to this woman to find out more about the mother she was never close to. The woman she finds is Susannah who is at best an unreliable narrator at worst well…

A lot of this book is at a frenetic pace because it moves along with Kali’s mind which is going in 20 different directions and it’s palpable while reading this book, I felt a sense of the frantic as I read and also dread because you just felt there was more to things and Kali was too wound up to see straight, but the problem is she brought her child along for the ride. The recent death of her mother has Kali in a tailspin she can’t think straight but she goes on this mission to find out more about her mother’s youth what was she like in college and is the reason they didn’t get along because her mother gave up her PhD study to have her? But there is the old adage “be careful what you wish for” because what she finds out may not be what she wanted to know.

I don’t want to give too much away because I don’t want to ruin anyone’s enjoyment of this story. So I will close this by saying I really enjoyed this book; I loved the gothic thriller feel to it and as I said I had a hard time putting it down because I needed to know what was going to happen next. My only little qualm was the ending chapter but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of this book. So if you like gothic atmosphere, thrillers, and family secrets give this one a try.

4 Stars

I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher (Quercus) for a fair and honest review

a most excellent 5 star read

the missing one... 5 stars
This was a fantastic and "edge of your seat read" the suspense drove me nuts, at times I wanted to jump into the book and smack Kail screaming, danger! danger! Then I would smack her father for not just telling her something, anything that would have cleared so very much up!
I loved the information about the whales, I learned so much and I felt it paralleled the storyline in a sad and wonderful way.
Kali's life is unraveling, she is devastated thinking her husband is having an affair so when her mother dies from breast cancer she grabs her young son Finn and rushes away from her husband and to her childhood home in a panic.
The relationship between Kali and her mother was never a close one, strained at best. She wishes they had been more comfortable together. When she finds some very strange postcards saying thinking of you, and signed just S, that her mother has been getting for 37 years from some one she has never heard of, she decides to get away from her life that seems to be spiraling out of control so she and baby Finn will embark on a very blind, scary and dangerous journey to the desolate but beautiful pacific northwest.
This is a book of miscommunications, misread body language and missed chances... it is so terrifyingly thrilling that it makes you stay up all night just trying to get to the end so you can figure out what the heck is going on already!
I don't want to say anymore. Just go out and get it. now. you will not regret reading this book.

I love reading and my way of preparing for / coping with change has always been to read about relevant subjects so it was inevitable that becoming a parent would lead to an influx of parenting books. This is one I purchased online after seeing a number of positive reviews about it. The subtitle ('the honest guide that's on your side - what to expect and how to cope brilliantly') was appealing and the image on the front cover of a chuckling baby reinforced the idea that this book would help to create a positive start to the mother-child relationship. (The apparent neutrality of the title is rather undermined by the one quotation on the front cover which claims that this is 'a great book for any first-time mother'.)

The set-up

After a very brief introduction which aims to establish just how chaotic parenting can be and how normal (and therefore, presumably, able to be 'on your side') the author is, Atkins organises her book into eleven main sections which cover the first year of parenthood: preparing for your new baby, the likely events in the first few hours, the first few days, sleeping, crying, eating, growing, playing, health, your changed life and work. Her stated aim is to equip new parents to understand the likely challenges and triumphs of their baby's first year and to help them trust themselves.

Who is Atkins and why should I trust her?

In her introduction Atkins reveals that she is a parent to three children and clearly feels that this is sufficient to allow her to offer advice to other parents. A little research reveals that she also writes about health, but essentially she is speaking to readers as one knowledgable parent to more newbie parents. Whether you find this actually quite reassuring or whether you are now wondering what distinguishes her from helpful mothers at the local bus stop is up to you.

An honest guide?

You do get honest advice. For instance, Atkins explains why you are not supposed to heat bottles of formula in the microwave...and how most mothers do. I did find this very reassuring as a novice parent because in many books and leaflets there is very clear-cut, quite 'strict' advice that other parents (especially my own!) will dismiss with a wave of the hand and a comment about the nanny state. This book tries to reconcile the two by providing the official advice and explaining how many parents 'really' operate. I did find this approach quite positive.

Atkins adopts a personal approach, including some very honest details about her own sexual experiences post-baby. In doing so, she clearly aims to reassure the reader that everyone is likely to find certain aspects of parenting challenging and that this is natural but not terminal. However, it is clear that, despite her efforts to quote a few other parents, the reader is primarily being given the benefit of Atkins' own opinions, which does lead me to wonder how reliable and trustworthy her statements are. She frequently claims that "studies show that" without any references or specifics, which makes her sound glib rather than trustworthy.

It also leaves me with several questions. When discussing weaning she states that: "six months old is the official kick-off point". Why? Says who? Similarly, why am I aiming to give all drinks in cups, not bottles, by 18 months? In truth, I know the answers to those questions, but I know them because I have read other books, not because I read this one. If I was relying purely on this book, I would have a lot of questions still. I do not like being given rules without reason, 'facts' without at least a nod in the direction of the research / source of the consensus. Personally I prefer factual books to clearly refer to reliable experts / organisations. The lack of such anchors in this book made me hesitate to completely true Atkins' advice.

On your side?

Possibly. Depending on what your side is. Atkins maintains a decisive, even authoritarian, tone which is outright judgemental on many topics: little man clothes are 'silly' and breastfeeding t-shirts are 'pointless' and a 'fashion crime'. Personally, I have found breastfeeding t-shirts very useful, though I appreciate that they are not essential. For a guide that claims to be parent friendly I am just a little surprised by her tone at these junctures. Personally, I did not feel very supported in my choices at these points. This meant I was a little surprised when, upon discussing smacking, Atkins decided to "come off the fence". Amusingly, her argument is lucid and polite at this point, and yet a mere paragraph later the reader is told "If anyone tells you to...(behaviour management strategy)...for God's sake don't - you're trying to teach by example, aren't you?" Yes, miss.

Similar examples abound. Atkins is pro ready to eat formula when out and about: "I'm not sure why anyone would do anything else, but you can also prepare a feed to take with you." Hmm, why would someone not choose to buy ready made formula? Um...cost?! Her tone is not exactly supportive. At another point she suggests that refusing to ever allow your child sugar is "bordering on child abuse". None of these examples detract from the fact that there is a wealth of useful advice in this book, but the tone can be slightly sharp, bearing in mind the book's subtitle.

Speaking of formula, mums who have taken this route to feeding for whatever reason can at least feel reassured that, unlike some books, they will not be subjected to a barrage of commentary about how breast is best. In fact, there is no discussion of feeding decisions in this respect, merely lists of equipment and tips for each type of feeding. If, conversely, you would like some information on the pros and cons of each type of feeding, you will need to look elsewhere for this kind of information.

The focus of the work chapter is, unsurprisingly, how to cope with going back to work. However, I thought it was a bit of a shame that there was no equivalent section for staying at home. This section does seem to imply that a return to work is obligatory and could perhaps cause pressure on mums who think they might like to stay at home. Atkins also addresses the guilt of working mums and not the guilt of stay at home mums. (Can you guess which one she was?) As someone who is weighing up her options carefully I thought that this was a disappointing omission, and once again I did not really feel that Atkins was 'on my side'.

What to expect?

I found that Atkins' personal approach did help me to feel a little bit more relaxed about some subjects, but I also felt that it had its limitations that her frequent references to her own experiences only highlighted. For instance, although Atkins makes an effort to include a range of experiences, such as what will happen if your baby needs to have special care or if you are a single parent, some aspects of parenting are almost or completely ignored, presumably because they do not fit in with her parenting experiences. Real nappies are mentioned very briefly with no guidance about how to use or what they cost or where to buy. In contrast, she is happy to suggest which brands of disposable nappies she trusts. Sleeping with your baby is only mentioned briefly in a set of instructions that tell you when NOT to do it. This means that the guide is not quite as comprehensive as the structured, bullet-pointed approach might suggest at a glance. Furthermore, her written style is very personal at times with frequent use of "I would..." and some mild bad language (e.g. "hell") which some readers may find off-putting.

The book feels a little bit like an encyclopaedia. Many topics are addressed but most of them are only treated briefly. For example, Atkins spends one paragraph on breastfeeding at work with no mention of the legal or practical realities. This isn't surprising as each section (first days, feeding, etc.) could easily be the subject of a complete book in itself. There is a contacts section at the back of the book which is organised by chapters and is useful for guiding readers towards more comprehensive sources of information.

Atkins hits all the key notes, though there are some surprising omissions, which I noticed because I actually read this book when my son was already nearly three months old. For instance, Atkins states that there is "no reason" to wait to express breastmilk until babies are six weeks old. Most books and midwives will tell you to avoid doing this to prevent nipple confusion. Again, details like this are a reminder that much of the book consists of Atkins' opinions presented as facts.

So will this teach first-time parents how to cope brilliantly?

Well, Atkins uses several colour pictures throughout which make the book quite pretty... More seriously, she includes clear guides in words and pictures for aspects of parenting including swaddling a newborn baby and changing a nappy. If I had not already done these things multiple times, I think I would have found these pictures helpful.

As mentioned previously, this book gives a brief overview of most topics a new parent might reasonably be interested in. This could work well as a basic starting point for a parent who feels fairly comfortable in their own skin. I think a reader would already need to feel some confidence in their initial thoughts due to Atkins' decisive (and sometimes judgemental) approach.

Information is organised and clear subtitles make it easy to find what you need. There is an easy to navigate index and bullet points are used where appropriate to make steps and lists clear. The section on illness is where this style comes into its own and Atkins' bullet point approach is useful and reassuring. I thought that the brief guide to the most relevant illnesses / problems a baby might have and the suitable response / first aid was very useful and reassuring. I feel it is almost worth buying the whole book just to have that key information available at your fingertips in a clearly expressed form.

Things can change quickly in government policy, healthcare and official advice on childcare. This book was published in 2009 so her figures relating to the cost of childcare should be revised upwards and new parents should be aware that the rules regarding child benefit have changed. In my area at least, the polio vaccine is no longer given as drips on the tongue and appointments for immunisations are not made by the doctor automatically and sent through the post. Parents will still need to check how systems work in their area. Although a few details like these will need to be amended in any reprint, most of the advice - on sleeping, eating, playing etc, - should be good for several years yet.

One minor thing I liked about this book was the fact that it is relatively easy to rest the book open on your knees without it closing and the print is easy to read with plenty of clean white space around the edges. This meant that I could read it while holding my son, which meant that I could actually find time to read it. This gave it a big advantage over other child care books!

At £12.99 the price for this paperback seems much more suited to a hardback book, but I believe this is fairly typical for a non-fiction book on this subject. Once read, there is enough here that a parent might want to refer to again for the book to remain on your bookshelf through the first year. Therefore, I feel that it is worth the RRP. However, it is, as always, possible to get this cheaper from the usual places online.

Read this if:

- you would like concise, focused guidance on the basics of child care from 0-1 years;
- you are confident enough in your own decisions and feelings to tolerate some rather definite opinions;
- you would like a parent-to-parent type guide rather than an expert-to-parent type guide.

Avoid this if:

- you are a second or third time parent (this really is a book of first time basics);
- you like clear links to research and experts to validate advice given;
- you want detailed guidance on one or two particular aspect of child rearing rather than a diffuse guide to everything.