The Reluctant Fathers' Club
When Nick Duerden learned that he was going to become a father, he experienced a sense of anxiety and malaise that, in his more reflective moments, now shames him. He had never felt less prepared for anything in his life. He was 36. He had air miles, a full social life, and lived with his girlfriend in a heavily fortified flat in one of London's more insalubrious neighbourhoods. Where on earth would a baby fit into all that?
In the course of extensive research over the next few months, he learned that the majority of men felt just like him. But while there are a great many accounts of the long journey into motherhood, he found precious little to cater for the male experience that didn’t, in some way, reduce men to two-dimensional caricatures, and make repeated jokes about beer and breast milk. Fathers, especially reluctant ones, don’t want to be talked down to. They want it told just as it is…
Welcome, then, to The Reluctant Fathers' Club which, through memoir and case study, aims to provide an insight into one of life's most extraordinary curveballs, relayed with wit, pathos and, most crucially of all, honesty.
Nick's daughter is two years old now. She has changed his life considerably, but despite daily exasperation and perennial exhaustion, and a tiny burst capillary just beneath his left eye, he adores her with an intensity that surprises him. Which rather suggests, given his initial reluctance, that if he can do it, anyone can...
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About the author
Nick Duerden is a wide-ranging newspaper and magazine feature writer. He lives in London with his partner, and their daughter.