There is a grave negligence, I believe, when the public gives the work of education over to bureaucratic and market forces. More than politicians and the invisible hand of markets, it is teachers working as professionals who recognize that students are not numbers to be thrown into global economic wars, but rather lives and bodies—bodies that sit in desks, that suffer, that grieve, that matter uniquely in the future we wish to create.

Recommended with reservations.

So is deciding to have a child ultimately an irrational decision?

I was keen to include the period of time when they were trying to decide whether to have a child. You’re entirely right. You go through these rational set of pros and cons. And that kind of cost-benefit analysis doesn’t get you anywhere. It is this huge leap of faith. You have no idea what’s going to happen. You have no idea who’s going to walk into your life….Rationally, it’s amazing that now that we have birth control, anyone has kids…The stigma against childlessness, now that the norm has changed considerably, has lifted. I don’t feel discriminated against because I don’t have children, and I don’t think people feel sorry for me. It’s the safer option. So I’m in awe of the number of parents who voluntarily continue the human race. Good for them.

So who is the man behind what may well come to be seen as the defining novel of credit-crunch Britain (as if producing one of the best financial books of recent years weren’t enough)? What enables him to be so versatile?

In the Observer, William Skidelsky profiles John Lanchester.