Through her work as a psychotherapist, teacher, and breastfeeding counsellor, and especially as the founder and host of Mothers Talking, Stadlen explored the profound transformation that women undergo when they become mothers. She emphasized the importance of each mother’s unique role in developing a loving relationship with her baby, and shone a light on the limitations of our existing language to describe it. Her bestselling books on family and motherhood include What Mothers Do – especially when it looks like nothing (2004), hailed as ‘the best book on parenting’ by The Guardian.

• IntroductionPart I: Elizabeth Gaskell, Florence Nightingale1. A visit to Lea Hurst2. Parthenope: ‘Athena, an owlet from the Parthenon’3. Gaskell: ‘I feel myself so unknowing’4. Gaskell: ‘If I could get over this next piece’ 5. Nightingale: ‘I have no desire now but to die’ 6. Nightingale: ‘No one will act but me’7. Gaskell: ‘A grand quarrel’8. Gaskell: ‘Or will you snub me?’9. Nightingale: ‘Treat them like reasonable beings’Part II: Mothers today10. Where have all the mothers gone? With thanksBibliographyNotesIndex

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