AMY and Stephen have been happily married for two years. They have good jobs - him as a computer programmer, her as a magazine sub-editor - they have a small, but lovely New York apartment and they have a spontaneous, fun social life.

Then, out of the blue, they decide they want a baby. This is not a decision they take lightly. They take at least a page and a half to go from total anti-child mode to coo-cooing at the mere mention of booties.

Armed with a "how to" pregnancy guide called Baby How, Baby Now, a distinctly unenthusiastic bunch of overly-colourful, almost cartoon-like friends and a gynaecologist dubbed the Crotch Whisperer, their adventure into parenthood begins.

Amy records every mad moment of the ensuing months, using a strange mixture of diary, scripted speech and footnotes, much as she did in Wolf's last book Diary Of A Mad Bride, and which she will undoubtedly continue in Diary Of A Mad Mother, as yet to be written but surely on the cards.

I won't be queuing round the block for my copy when it appears, but if you love Bridget Jones-style witterings and slapstick situations involving pregnant women and yoga this could be your ideal summer read.

Updated: 08:29 Wednesday, May 26, 2004