My Wild and Sleepless Nights: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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And then Clover remembers that we are actually here to discuss her appearance tomorrow at the Thame Arts and Literature Festival (TAL) where she is being interviewed by the lovely Kerry Potter, and perks up. Moving, startling, uplifting, galvanising and unsettling, this plainly beautiful book is one of those rare few that changes how you see the world around you' - Ella Risbridger, author of The Year of Miracles I read in one greedy gulp and am still slightly reeling. Extraordinary writing... For mothers and those even vaguely interested in family dynamics it is fascinating' - Alexandra Heminsley Nell died of cancer in 2019 aged 46. Clover and Nell were extraordinarily close, perhaps because of their rather dysfunctional childhood, so her death has devastated Clover and continues to do so.

Brilliant motherhood memoir...Clover Stroud is one of the very best writers on the light and dark of motherhood and, if you enjoyed her debut The Wild Other, you'll love this. The book follows the first year of her fifth child's life as she juggles looking after a newborn with dealing with her teenage son's problematic behaviour. The writing is sublime and honest. * Good Housekeeping *I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time. Stroud captures the very essence of motherhood in all its contradictions - the brutal loveliness of what it is to mother another, and how the act of doing so breaks us open in ways both wonderful and terrible. There are few other books about motherhood as brave, honest and beautifully written as this one. Sarah Langford, author of In Your Defence My Wild and Sleepless Nights examines what it means to be a mother, and reveals with unflinching honesty the many conflicting emotions that this entails: the joy and the wonder, the loneliness and despair. Clover Stroud's brilliantly unvarnished memoir finds the heroism and poetry in having kids ... Much of this book ..reads like a nature memoir, full of landscape both external and internal ... How brilliant for someone to write about the blankness as well as the beauty. -- Nell Frizzell * Telegraph * Mother to five children, Clover Stroud has navigated family life across two decades, both losing and finding herself. In her touching, provocative and profoundly insightful book, she captures a sense of what motherhood really feels like – how intense, sensuous, joyful, boring, profound and dark it can be.

What does being a mother really feel like? Clover Stroud's powerhouse of a memoir gets closer than anything else I have read to answering that question. The motherhood she describes is the very antithesis of the sanitised, smiling vision we are sold in washing powder ads... She excels in evoking the feral, instinctive forces that motherhood unleashes... This is a vision of motherhood for the (now middle-aged) MDMA generation... The reader is simply swept up in her painful, wonderful world. Buy it, read it, and enjoy it for the wild ride it is. * The Guardian * Brilliant motherhood memoir...Clover Stroud is one of the very best writers on the light and dark of motherhood and, if you enjoyed her debut The Wild Other, you'll love this. The book follows the first year of her fifth child's life as she juggles looking after a newborn with dealing with her teenage son's problematic behaviour. The writing is sublime and honest. Good Housekeeping I read in one greedy gulp and am still slightly reeling. Extraordinary writing... For mothers and those even vaguely interested in family dynamics it is fascinating. * Alexandra Heminsley *

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We hear about Stroud's own complex relationship with motherhood, the challenges facing her other children, her relationship with her partner, her sex life, how she is trying to balance work and family plus so many more things. While not everyone who has given birth will recognize their experience in Stroud’s words, readers can appreciate Stroud’s attempt to get to the core of what it feels like to give birth, beyond the obvious descriptions of blood, sweat, screaming, and pain.

And yes they rebel, but that’s normal, certainly as normal as having sleepless nights when you have a baby or toddler tantrums. It doesn’t mean they don’t have values. Has writing it down helped? “I haven’t found it cathartic actually. I thought it would be quite therapeutic but in writing it down I have to recreate it in my head so it’s been quite a painful process and does have an immediate rawness to it.” What does being a mother really feel like? Clover Stroud’s powerhouse of a memoir gets closer than anything else I have read to answering that question. The motherhood she describes is the very antithesis of the sanitised, smiling vision we are sold in washing powder ads. There are no pastel colours here; Stroud’s mother-love is “as raw and rare as cutting through the soft dark crimson of uncooked liver”. When someone gives her new baby a stuffed toy monkey, she longs to surround him with more ancient and serious things: the Bible, The Complete Works of Shakespeare. The business of bringing a person into the world, after all, is not cute or clean or fluffy.

About My Wild and Sleepless Nights

Clover's expertise is writing about family life in a way that feels both new and entirely familiar' - Pandora Sykes Rare are the books about motherhood, rarer still; the true, the generous, tender, resonant ones. This is that book. I loved it and I love Clover's voice. * Sophie Dahl * A compelling read. Clover writes so beautifully and somehow manages to give shape to the mess and madness of motherhood. * Lucy Atkins * The best evocation of the all-consuming, self-eroding reality of motherhood, while also being luminous with love. Emma Beddington, The Sunday Times A beautifully written, brutally honest dissection of motherhood by a woman who has five children, from pregnancy to teenagers, covering both the extreme highs and lows. Stroud's writing examines what it is to be a woman with the same sensitive skill fans of her first memoir, The Wild Other, will recall. * Independent *

My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud is a robust, raw and rare celebration of motherhood that had me laughing out loud one moment and crying the next. Rachel Joyce, Observer In Rooted, Sarah weaves her own story around those who taught her what it means to be a farmer. She shines a light on the human side of modern farming, and shows how land connects us all, not only in terms of global sustainability but in our relationships with our physical and mental health, our communities and our planet.I read in one greedy gulp and am still slightly reeling. Extraordinary writing… For mothers and those even vaguely interested in family dynamics it is fascinating’– Alexandra Heminsley