The author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings talks to Alex Preston about her new book Mother Animal, which investigates motherhood in the animal world, combining personal memoir with scientific insight to ask how motherhood works in other species.

Helen Jukes' work has appeared in The New York Times, Port Magazine, Aeon and others. Her first book, A Honeybee Heart has Five Openings, received wide critical acclaim, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag non-fiction award. Helen has led creative writing workshops for universities, literary organisations, a homelessness charity and a prison; she currently teaches at the University of Oxford, and lives with her daughter on the edge of the Peak District.

Alex Preston writes for the Observer and the Guardian. His books include In Love and War; As Kingfishers Catch Fire; and Winchelsea.

Photo © Amanda Jackson