Written with self-excoriating candour and the driest humour, comes a book about being a dad from one of our best loved journalists.
âFor me the hardest task of fatherhood was always the oppressive obligation to lead by example. My sons have been present on countless occasions when I have, as we say in my homeland, completely lost my shit. During these stressful moments I have often wished to turn to them as a judge might to a jury and say, âPlease strike the next few minutes from the recordâ, but many of those instances are chronicled in these pages. Itâs not because Iâm any less ashamed now; itâs because if I left them out there wouldnât be enough for a book.
Perhaps this is my lifeâs true purpose: maybe Iâm here to teach my sons that self-esteem comes and goes â it can get rolled right out of you at short notice â but that you still can get by in life without any, as long as you donât want to be a contestant on The Apprentice. That, at least, is my experience. And for what itâs worth, my example.â