Helen Charman makes a radical case for what liberated mothering could be. Beginning with an understanding that to mother is a political act, Helen talks to author and journalist Eliane Glaser about her research into what motherhood has been, from the 1970s to the 2010s – from Women’s Liberation to austerity and how this maps mothers' fights for an alternative future.

'With ease and precision, Charman examines all the waged and unwaged labour that create mothers as well as the political processes that produce their vexed relationship to the British state. ​Mother State is at once a sorely needed politicised history of motherhood – sharp and critical – and a tender love letter to her own mother’s knees' – Lola Olufemi

Helen Charman teaches English at Clare College, Cambridge. Her critical writing has been published in the Guardian, The White Review, Another Gaze, and The Stinging Fly among others. As a poet, Charman was shortlisted for the White Review Poet's Prize and has published four poetry pamphlets. She volunteers as a birth companion in Glasgow.

Eliane Glaser is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. Her published works include Motherhood: A Manifesto; Anti-Politics; and Get Real: How To Tell It Like It Is In a World of Illusions.

Photo Helen Charman © Robin Christian