It is about time for a decent book aimed at fathers. Shelves groan with useful guides for mothers - from the emotional to the physical, women love sharing pregnancy and child-rearing advice, but men are expected to run away. These days, however, we openly discuss fashion and moisturisers, so why not children?
Now Short Books, an independent publishing firm with a strong track record in quirky subjects, has published The Reluctant Fathers' Club. Unfortunately, rather than exploiting the gap in the market, this book treads a well-worn path. Its story of a laddish commitment-phobe being forced to grow into a man with responsibilities is hardly a new one - even the author, journalist Nick Duerden, has written about it in at least two newspapers.
Sensibly, therefore, as well as being a diary of personal experiences, the book offers some investigation of what it means to be a modern father. And for good measure, Duerden includes a search for his lost father, which could have been subject enough for a more original and involving book all on its own.
In trying to tick so many boxes, however, Duerden fails to excel in any direction. He is too self-obsessed to offer much advice; his accounts of meeting an eclectic selection of other fathers (Alex James from Blur, John Simpson...) dance tantalisingly around the issue of parenting, but never really grapple with the emotional complexities; and his personal diary is packed with truisms and generalities. This book is not, despite the quote provided for the front cover by GQ editor Dylan Jones, "a flat-pack starter kit for any aspiring father", because unlike those for expectant mothers, it does not include tips about the practicalities of parenting.
When he retreats into sitcom territory to describe the comic tugs of love between the inlaws, employed carers, friends and neighbours, which will be familiar to many young families, Duerden's writing can be very funny. But his real problem is his unwillingness to write down what he actually feels about any of the big events of his life - marriage, fatherhood and so on - with which the book is supposed to deal. Thank goodness he credits himself in the end with the discovery that he loves his daughter. It's obvious, maybe, but at least it's honest.
