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Explorations in Fatherland by Judith Edwards is a much-needed book for practitioners and the general public alike. Written in Edwards’ fast-moving, but highly accessible style, it allows the reader to follow the detail of her basic narrative or dip in and out without losing the overall direction of travel. In doing so, Edwards takes us on a journey through the many realities for fathers and their families. Its destination is to provide highly interesting ideas and insights into how fathers, their families and society think about this crucial role in parenting. This review aims only to give a flavour of Edwards’ remarkable book.
As with her earlier book – Grandmotherland: Exploring the myths and realities (2024)1 – the title of Explorations in Fatherland tells us what to expect. In both, Edwards writes in her typically memorable style about family roles that are under-represented in academic literature, psychoanalytic literature, and the socio-culture of our Western society. She rightly insists on the need for ideas where these have been previously lacking, and appeals to the reader to be open to accepting or rejecting her own.
Explorations in Fatherland specifically addresses the role of the father through history, fathers and their sons and daughters, being and having a father, and fathers in poetry. For this reviewer, Edwards’ is a refreshing approach that would have been welcome at any time over the past 50 or more years. Indeed, through my nearly 35 years’ of work as a CAMHS child psychotherapist, I have met fathers desperate to express their experiences. This painful deficit also extended to their families, where they were at a loss to express what fathers meant to them.
This is also a book full of contemporary and historical references from literature, politics, psychoanalysis and the world of entertainment. To this reader, Edwards’ writing is exhilarating, but requires one to travel at her speed; to chop and change as she moves between ideas. From time to time,