Split decisions

The history of motherhood, from childbirth to breastfeeding and working mothers, has enjoyed overdue scholarly attention in recent years.

- Lara Feigel

Lara Feigel's new book is a valuable addition, exploring legal attitudes towards children of divorce and the women deemed 'unfit' to raise them.

The book spotlights seven women, from Caroline Norton and George Sand in the early 19th century - when a child was the legal property of the father in the UK - to Alice Walker and Britney Spears in our own lifetime. Joining them on this march across two centuries are battalions of ordinary mothers, including the author herself, fighting for parental rights in very different social contexts. The result feels both dizzyingly timeless and deeply personal.