In the 1990s, the "Parent Question" has become a constant on the political agenda. New Labour is committed to do whatever it takes to turn lazy, bad and inadequate parents into good ones. The author states that she is writing the book to "define this new morality, and to explain why we collude with it at our peril. I want to explain where these ideas came from, why they have so much public support and why, seeing the world in terms of good and evil has created a moral panic that has resulted in the new morality". She explores how the scandals, the scare statistics and public events - such as Mandy Allwood, the Home Alone children, the divorce epidemic, Louise Woodward, the Julia Somerville bath photos, the murder of the headteacher Phillip Lawrence, unmarried teenage mothers, Jack Straw and son - have turned a vague national anxiety into a panic.
MAUREN FREELY was born in the United States and grew up in Istanbul. She was educated at Harvard University. Perhaps best known as translator of the Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, she is a journalist and a professor at the University of Warwick. She lives in England.
