This novel about babies and is set mainly in a London, a city where everyone apparently goes through the motions of having jobs, relationships and going on holiday, but in reality are only really interested in babies, spending all their time either thinking or talking about babies even if they've no interested in actually having one.

The book centres around three sisters whose mother walked out on them when they were young girls; each seemingly have a baby obsession of one form or other. Jessica, is desperate to get pregnant, but can't. Megan, in her last year as a trainee doctor, isn't "ready" to have a baby, but gets pregnant after a one-night stand. She contemplates having an abortion but as the foetus develops, so does her maternal instinct. Cat, the eldest sister, is happy with her life enjoying her job and has no desire to be a mother at all. But Parsons doesn't really believe that any real woman could possibly think that way. He seems to despise career women who have no maternal instinct and Cat is suddenly convinced that she's incomplete without one: "Without children all you had was now, and reminders of the past."

The men are obsessed about babies as well. Rather than going down the pub or at a football match they seem to spend their days talking about women wanting babies, about the women's body-clocks; "Their bodies were in extra time, their eggs were still hopeful of a penalty shoot-out." or about being fathers. Some of their dialogue is quite laddish as exampled above whilst some of it is more reflective " what would he tell his daughter about men? How could he prepare her for their lies, their tricks, and their black hearts? Our black hearts."

Thankfully in Parsons's world everything turns all right in the end. Jessica and Cat fall pregnant against all the odds, Megan successfully completes her training and is able to move from the vicious NHS to genteel private practice, and as an extra reward for the sisters their faithful father finds new love whilst the absconding mother has MS and her latter years will rapidly go down the drain.

I must confess that this is my first book by the author and whilst there were a few parts that made me smile, when I finished it I was left with absolutely no desire to read another book that featured a pregnancy for quite a while. ( )

Owned a copy, couldn't get rid of it fast enough. The theme of this diatribe- sorry novel: you are not a real woman unless you've had babies. Nothing else equals parenthood in terms of fulfillment. Those without rug-munchers are sad creatures, possibly evil. I was a fan of Parsons other man-lit novels, until this. ( )

This is a nice story, but not the best for Tony Parsons, I'd recommend Man and Boy and Man and Wife, they are deep and real, The Family Way is a little fabricated. ( )

No self respecting charity shop would be without at least one Tony Parsons novel, which means that even if nothing else on their shelf grabs me, I can be assured of an enjoyable read, even if it comes with a slightly guilty feeling as when one eats a donut while on a diet.

This was his best so far, as far as I’m concerned – hard-wired into the emotional circuitry of its characters, this novel explores issues surrounding pregnancy and parenthood. The main characters are all female which means delving into some subject matter that would have the average bloke diving for cover in the nearest conversation about football, but Tony Parsons is not to be put off by such trifles. And I can say from personal experience that his portrayal of a particular pregnancy complication and resulting medical procedure is highly accurate.

There are blokes in the novel too – and given that some of them engage in deep and meaningful conversations about lurrrve and actually kiss eachother, the author has the good sense to make them Italian. Let’s face it, British men don’t do that. There were a few stereotypes on view, though- not least the feckless dole merchants on the Sunny View Estate (where nobody ventured unless “buying drugs, selling drugs or making a concerned documentary” (!!)). They were the sort of people the liberal establishment insist don’t exist while the Daily Mail insists they do. They are used to good effect here, though I was never too sure whether I should be feeling indignant about the demonization of the working classes.

The only thing that annoyed me – as with all his other novels – was the tendency towards single line paragraphs used to emphasise some point or other. Only the fact they weren’t in bold type could distinguish them from tabloid editorials. It was like a constant reminder that i wasn’t reading serious literature. But on the other hand, this was never as predictable as it threatened to be, and for its humour alone it was worth a read. The laughs kept coming. I loved the way Kirk’s parents, who stayed together despite constantly rowing, “made you believe in the sanctity of divorce”. A book that was always a pleasure to take up, never easy to put down. You can’t ask for much more. ( )

Acquired via BookCrossing 10 Jul 2010 - donated to BookCrossing by the Moseley Lions

Like a Richard Curtis film, this book about three sisters and their various maternity issues rings through all the possible changes and tugs at all the possible heartstrings, while remaining just that bit too calculating - not exactly heartless, but a bit cold-hearted. But it passed the journey home from our holiday well enough! ( )