Mumming: Victoria Vanstone in-conversation with Hamish Adams-Cairns

A hilarious and painfully relatable memoir about a mum who sets out to revolutionise herself and her parenting – one failed experiment at a time.

Victoria Vanstone thought she’d be the kind of mum who would spend her days ironing names onto school shirts and who knew the best chocolate-chip cookie recipe off by heart. But as the years have ticked by, she’s got the feeling that woman isn’t going to show up. Instead, she’s the kind of mum who shouts a lot and throws plastic cups at walls.

So Victoria decides to become the mum she’s always wanted to be. She embarks on a year of parental development – enrolling in a parenting course, implementing an exercise regime, awkwardly trying to make friends as an adult, and a holiday away from her family – to reset the dials.

What follows is a year of trying, failing and trying again. But as Victoria stumbles…