Seed

Seed is a book based on a play from 10 years ago, but it feels extremely modern and current day in its exploration of various couples and women and their experience with wanting or not-wanting children, and having or not-having children.

The writing is quick and engaging, funny and touchingly vulnerable. I loved that friendships were the key relationships here, explored in their complexities that were extremely relatable and yet still entertaining.

I will absolute pick up whatever Elisabeth writes next. Her writing reminded me a lot of what I love about Marian Keyes - the characters feel complex, they don't always make the right choices, and in the end it's a reminder about how incredibly tricky and rewarding life can be.

“Seed”, the book to the award-winning play from 2014, looks at the tricky question of the ticking biological clock through the eyes of four different women in different circumstances. The story covers unexpected pregnancy, fertility treatment, abortion, single parenthood, sperm banks and plenty more, exploring the many emotional facets around conception (or lack thereof), pregnancy and parenthood. The lives of our women weave together, told with plenty of humour. I enjoyed following their stories – all four women find a place of content, which is not necessarily where they had seen themselves at the outset.