Editions

  • Mother
    Hardback 2019
  • Mother
    eBook 2019
  • Mother
    Audio Download 2019
Penguin Logo
  • Categories

    Fiction
    • Action & adventure
    • Classics
    • Crime, thrillers & mysteries
    • General fiction
    • Graphic novels
    • Romance
    • Poetry
    • Horror
    • Short stories
    • View all fiction
    Non-fiction
    • Art, architecture & photography
    • Biography
    • Business, economics & law
    • Food & drink
    • Health & lifestyle
    • History
    • Politics & philosophy
    • Science & nature
    • Sport
    • View all non-fiction
    Children's
    • 0 - 18 months
    • 18 months - 3 years
    • 3 - 5 years
    • 5 - 7 years
    • 7 - 9 years
    • 9 - 12 years
    • View all children's

    • Puffin

      Puffin

    • Ladybird

      Ladybird


    • Audiobooks
    • Gifts & boxsets
    • Must-reads of 2019
    • Books to kick-start 2019
  • Authors A-Z

    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E
    • F
    • G
    • H
    • I
    • J
    • K
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P
    • Q
    • R
    • S
    • T
    • U
    • V
    • W
    • X
    • Y
    • Z
    • All Authors A-Z


    Featured Authors

    Lee Child

    Jojo Moyes

    Zadie Smith

    Carlo Rovelli

    Margaret Atwood

    James Patterson

    Yotam Ottolenghi

    Roald Dahl

  • Articles, Games and more...

    Articles
    • Recommendations
    • Features
    • Extracts
    • Quizzes
    • View all articles
    Children's articles
    • Recommendations
    • Extracts
    • Games & activities
    • Quizzes
    • View all children's articles
    Penguin Shop
    • Book bundles
      Book bundles
    • Penguin gifts
      Penguin gifts
    • Signed & special editions
      Signed & special editions
    • Writing workshops
      Writing workshops
    • View all
      View all

    • Events
    • Podcasts
    • Apps

    • Penguin Classics
    • VINTAGE
  • About Penguin Random House UK

    About Us
    • Overview
    • Company history
    • Leadership Team
    • News
    • Blogs
    Work with us
    • Authors
    • Careers
    • Rights and permissions
    • Penguin Living
    • Penguin Ventures
    • Sales & distribution
    • Student Design Award
    Publishing houses
    • Cornerstone
    • Ebury
    • Michael Joseph
    • Penguin General
    • Penguin Press
    • Penguin Random House Audio
    • Penguin Random House Children's
    • Transworld
    • VINTAGE
    Creative Responsibility
    • About Creative Responsibility
    • Reading
    • Community
    • Inclusion
    • Sustainability
    • WriteNow
    • Penguin Talks
    Contact us
    • Offices
    • Media contacts
    • Catalogues
  • Home
  • Mother
Mother
  • Imprint: Viking

  • Published: 07/03/2019

  • ISBN: 9780241198605

  • Length: 352  Pages

  • Dimensions: 204mm x 27mm x 138mm

  • Weight: 378g

  • RRP: £14.99

Mother

Sarah Knott

  • Hardback
  • Ebook
  • Audio Download
  • Hive Waterstones Amazon

'Timely and fascinating' Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

What was mothering like in the past?

When acclaimed historian Sarah Knott became pregnant, she asked herself this question. But accounts of motherhood are hard to find. For centuries, historians have concerned themselves with wars, politics and revolutions, not the everyday details of carrying and caring for a baby. These details matter: they shape our feelings and give structure to our hours. But they leave little historical trace. Much to do with becoming a mother, past or present, is lost or forgotten.

Using the arc of her own experience, from miscarriage to the birth and early babyhood of her two children, Sarah Knott explores the ever-changing habits and experiences of motherhood across the ages. Drawing on a disparate collection of fascinating material - interrupted letters, hastily written diary entries, a line from a court record or a figure in a painting - Mother vividly brings to life the lost stories of ordinary women.

From the labour pains felt by a South Carolina field slave to the triumphant smile of a royal mistress pregnant with a king's first son; from a 1950s suburban housewife to a working-class East Ender taking her baby to the factory; from a pioneer with eight children to a 1970s feminist debating whether to have any; these remarkable tales of mothering create a moving depiction of an endlessly various human experience.

'A stunning book. It is riveting from beginning to end' Diane Atkinson, author of Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes

'A remarkable history - exploratory, pointillist, and intensely personal - of what it is, and has been, to be a mother.' Helen Castor, BBC presenter and author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth

'Mother is a moving and enlightening meditation on the most elemental, yet ceaselessly varied, of all human bonds.' Fara Dabhoiwala, author of The Origins of Sex

  • Imprint: Viking

  • Published: 07/03/2019

  • ISBN: 9780241198605

  • Length: 352  Pages

  • Dimensions: 204mm x 27mm x 138mm

  • Weight: 378g

  • RRP: £14.99


  • Share at

  • Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook
  • Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter
  • Pinterest - pinterest Pinterest - pinterest
  • Email - email Email - email
  • Whatsapp - whatsapp Whatsapp - whatsapp

About the Author

Sarah Knott

Sarah Knott grew up in England. Educated at Oxford University, she is now a professor of history at Indiana University and a fellow of the Kinsey Institute. She is the author of Sensibility and the American Revolution and numerous articles on the histories of women, gender, and emotion. Knott has served as an editor of the American Historical Review, the American Historical Association's flagship journal, and sits on the editorial board of Past and Present. She has held many fellowships including from the Andrew Mellon foundation, the Rothermere American Institute, and the Oxford Centre for Life Writing.

Sarah Knott

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, offers and more 

  • Please enter an email.

    Please enter a valid email address

By signing up, I confirm that I'm over 16. To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy

Thank you for signing up to the Penguin Newsletter

Subscription failed, please try again

About us
  • Our company
  • Work with us
  • Getting published
  • Careers
  • Publishing houses
  • Creative Responsibility
  • Contact us
  • Send website feedback
Useful links
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & conditions
  • Help & FAQs
  • Gender pay gap report 2017
  • Industry commitment to professional behaviour
  • Permissions
Stay connected

Follow Penguin

  • Facebook Facebook
  • Instagram Instagram
  • Twitter Twitter
  • Youtube Youtube

Follow Puffin

  • Puffin Facebook Puffin Facebook
  • Puffin Instagram Puffin Instagram
  • Puffin Twitter Puffin Twitter
  • Puffin YouTube Puffin YouTube

Follow Ladybird

  • Ladybird Facebook Ladybird Facebook
  • Ladybird Twitter Ladybird Twitter
  • Ladybird YouTube Ladybird YouTube

Follow Penguin Random House UK

  • @PenguinRHUK Twitter link @PenguinRHUK Twitter link
  • @PenguinRHUK Instagram link @PenguinRHUK Instagram link
  • Penguin Random House YouTube link Penguin Random House YouTube link

© 1995 - 2019

Penguin Books Ltd.

Registered number: 861590 England.

Registered office: 80 Strand, London,

WC2R ORL UK.

Penguin Random House

Penguin Books Limited

A Penguin Random House Company.

We use cookies on this site and by continuing to browse it you agree to us sending you cookies.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here.