Mother Ship

'Heart-wrenching, heart-warming and heartfelt – Mother Ship is a beautifully crafted, warts-and-all love letter to our wonderful NHS' - Adam Kay

'I was bowled over by the beauty and terror of Mother Ship. I’m in awe of Francesca Segal’s honesty and courage, never mind her sublime, subtle writing. This is a vital, necessary book, not just about motherhood but about survival, care and the sustaining power of women in adversity' - Olivia Laing

'I can't think of another book I have read recently that has made me laugh and cry so much. It is full of wisdom, and humour.' - Sathnam Sanghera

'A beautiful memoir: wise, moving and profoundly humane. Segal writes with such exquisite clarity that each word is a gift, each sentence a votive offering. Mother Ship moved me to tears, but it also taught me the unassailable power of decency and kindness when life is at its most fragile and vulnerable. A book that left me changed for having read it' - Elizabeth Day

'Even if I wasn't a new mother, I would have found Mother Ship absorbing and emotionally charged, but reading it in bursts while my own baby was napping, it was almost unbearably painful – and beautiful too. Almost every chapter brought tears to my eyes as we learned of the twins' hard-won developments. I'm so glad Francesca managed to capture this difficult time – her book is a beacon of hope.' - Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun

'This is a marvellous humbling book about the fear and joy of giving birth to incredibly tiny premature twins. It's so tender, so moving, so blackly comic, and so involving your own heart beats fast as you read on.' - Dame Jacqueline Wilson

'Francesca Segal is an award-winning writer and Mother Ship is a masterclass in style. A beautiful, lyrical memoir that navigates the unpredictable landscape of NICU and the will to survive.' - Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness

'I loved Francesca Segal’s luminous memoir. It captures so much of what it is like to have a baby in special care and to start being a mother not-at-home. It is so good on resilience, friendship and love' - Samantha Ellis

'Mother Ship is a beautiful, poetic book about a different kind of motherhood, or at least a different start to motherhood that you don't hear as much about. It educated me about the shadowy other world of birth, that of severely prem babies... It's an exceptionally well-written memoir' - Pandora Sykes

'If there was ever a book that perfectly depicted the emotional highs, and dark dark lows of having a baby in NICU, Mother Ship is it. Francesca has captured the essence of mothering premature twins, the encounters with midwives and nurses but most importantly the friendships she bonds with fellow mothers in the milking shed. This beautiful book is as empowering as it is fragile and precious' - Clemmie Hooper