Cry When the Baby Cries

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A glorious antidote to parenting books, this darkly humorous, candid and insightful graphic memoir brings the early years of parenthood to life – in all their chaos, wonder and delirium.

Intimate, relatable and very funny, Becky Barnicoat explores everything from the anatomy of the hospital bag to the frantic obsession with putting your baby down drowsy but awake, to the tyranny of gentle parenting. From pregnancy to the feral toddler years, Barnicoat extends a sticky hand to all new parents grappling with the impossible but joyous jigsaw puzzle of their lives.

Barnicoat gives us permission to cry when the baby cries – and also laugh, snort, lie on the floor naked, drool and generally revel in a deeply strange new world ruled by a tyrannical tiny leader, growing bigger and more loved by the day.

© Becky Barnicoat 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

No subject is for her off limits, from leaking breasts to dubious stains. But the more important thing by far is that it’s very funny and even sardonic… This is a very analogue book, somehow, and all the better and more uplifting for it. Mothers, log off! Here’s the antidote to all that striving; here is the muddle that will set your minds at rest, even if it won’t actually rock your baby to sleep.
Observer, *Graphic novel of the month*
The most accurate account of becoming a parent I have ever read. It's fabulous.
Philippa Perry, author of THE BOOK YOU WISH YOUR PARENTS HAD READ
This book is a perfect testament to the wild ride of early parenting. It's tender, moving, beautifully drawn and also, extremely hilarious. Parents everywhere: you will feel very very seen.
Isabel Greenberg, author of THE ONE HUNDRED NIGHTS OF HERO
The most hilarious, wonderful, poignant, powerful, insightful and relatable book on the wild world of early parenting I have ever read. Barnicoat's fantastic illustrations and wry humour come together to create something brilliant that I will be recommending to everyone. It made me laugh, weep, cheer and howl. It is essential reading for parents and their peers.
Nell Frizzell, author of THE PANIC YEARS
I couldn't love this book more. So clever, so funny, so astute, so healing. Becky Barnicoat is a stone cold genius. I will put this book in the hands of every new mother I know.
Lucy Jones, author of MATRESCENCE
A marvel. A moving, honest memoir; a hilarious comedy routine; a parenting guide which tells you all the stuff the rest somehow seem to leave out. Above all, it is the most extraordinary masterclass in cartooning. If you know a new parent, believe me: they need this book as urgently as they need a home-made lasagne.
Stephen Collins, author of THE GIGANTIC BEARD THAT WAS EVIL
Becky’s cartoons about parenting make me cry and laugh, often simultaneously. Never self-pitying or twee, as so much writing about parenting can be. Just totally honest and wise and true.
Hadley Freeman, author of HOUSE OF GLASS
Wow! This book is stellar - brave, brutal and laugh-out-loud hilarious, yet ultimately sincere and tender. A total winner!
Joff Winterhart, author of DRIVING SHORT DISTANCES
Painfully raw, lovingly hilarious, and deeply empathetic. I wish I'd had this book in those first brutal, beautiful weeks of motherhood
Kirsty Logan, author of THE UNFAMILIAR: A QUEER MOTHERHOOD MEMOIR
Becky Barnicoat has a great eye and ear for the contradictions, absurdities, and compromises that new parents face. A rare book, never cliched, perfectly honest.
Tom Lamont, author of GOING HOME

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