Here at last is a book about maternal ambivalence. Over the last twenty or thirty years this is a topic that has periodically been discussed by feminists, but not one that has filtered through to a wider audience. Rozsika Parker's book should change this. Because of the lack of discussion, the implications of maternal ambivalence have not been explored thoroughly. Rozsika Parker's book does this and also gives an explanation as to why it is that such a vital topic has been until now to a very great extent ignored.

At the end of her book Rozsika Parker sums up her work as ‘an exploration of maternal ambivalence’ (p. 266). It is certainly that, but it is a lot more too: it is also a book about the relation between society and the individual. Her book uses the case of maternal ambivalence in order to explore some fundamental questions about the human predicament. She examines the changing cultural conception of mothers and shows how they are connected with economic and social changes. Through this study