My Child and Other Mistakes is the honest lowdown on motherhood and all its grisly delights, asking the questions no one wants to admit to asking themselves - do I want a child? Trying to make up for lost time, I began to look at places for my unborn child when I was seven months pregnant. During the intro of her book, Ellie Taylor acknowledges are privileges as a White, Cis woman in a marriage with a Cis man, and later she also acknowledges her privilege when it comes to aspects such as ease of conception and maternal mortality rates (but more on that aspect of the book later.

As the front-woman of Blondie, she and the band forged a new sound that brought together the worlds of rock, punk, disco, reggae and hip-hop to create some of the most beloved pop songs of all time. For anyone who is pregnant, or trying to weigh up whether or not they ever want to be pregnant, this is a really helpful insight into what you might experience and - importantly - that all of the negative experiences and emotions that you may go through are NORMAL and OK! One thing Ellie does super well is use her platform to share this information and stick up for women, showing the realities of birthing - she’s a badass feminist after all.I hope you realise the strength and impact of your talent to be able to simultaneously make someone laugh and fill their soul when they didn't think it was possible. I found that this constant need to cover each and every base AND run a commentary on how poorly the “powers that be” view mothers and maternity really detracted from the comedy. There is a brutality about some of what is written in this book, they are thoughts that most parents would never admit to having (even though they most likely do on a regular basis).

Taylor also plays Gloria, the next-door business-owner to the main characters in ITV2 Ancient Roman comedy series Plebs.So lovely to read about someone else's experiences and to reflect on the early days of having my first son (it's a bit different second time round as know more what to expect! She entered ITV’s comic talent contest Show Me The Funny with no prior experience of stand-up, and finished fourth with a great deal of acclaim and many new fans. My delight when I leave her at nursery and walk away humming George Michael’s ‘Freedom’ as I cross the road without having to wait for the green man, is only bettered by the delight I experience when I pick her up again at the end of the day. I usually favour an actual book in my hands but this worked so well as an audio book I can't imagine a hard copy could beat it.

That said, she also successfully manages to ensure that the writing feels easy to connect to and is consistently humorous, and therefore, not a difficult read. And her voice was so clear throughout the book, never getting lost to ‘I am writing a book I must sound formal and knowledgeable’.In 2021, she published her debut book, My Child and Other Mistakes, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. Like watching The Big Bang Theory, it honours the world of physics and physicists/ motherhood and mothering but doesn't mind if you don't want to be one. A book I wish I could have read before having children but which is still relatable, poignant and uplifting now my children are a little older. Childcare costs in the UK are some of the most expensive in the world for a variety of reasons, including lack of government funding and also the legal specifications around adult to children ratios. All that aside, I laughed, I cried and I finished it in a couple of days (as a mum of a 6 month old I impressed myself)!

Ellie knows how to make you laugh and cry (maybe that's just my hormones) but her honesty on all aspects of pregnancy/parenting have really helped me understand that I'm not alone for having these thoughts and worries and that it will be fine in the end.

for a month of wrangling a baby, a toddler, a commute and a ‘part-time’ role that inevitably spilled over into her days off. Becoming a first time mum during lockdown was a lonely experience, I'm sorry I didn't have this book then, but I'm so glad to have it now. as co-presenter of The Mash Report alongside fellow comedians Nish Kumar and Rachel Parris, as team captain on ITV2's panel show Fake Reaction or from popping up on C4′s 8 Out of 10 Cats. Taylor was discovered on ITV series Show Me the Funny, an X Factor-style contest for aspiring stand-up comedians. Unfortunately though, I think I went into the book expecting more of an argument exploring both sides of the choice to have children and this wasn't really the case; if you go into the book wanting or not wanting children, I feel it won't do a drastic amount to change your perspective either way.