Reading The Children Act over the Christmas break might sound like a busman’s holiday, but Ian McEwan’s version is, as The Guardian said, “compulsively readable”.  Interestingly, if you *google “The Children Act”, the first few results relate to the novel not the statute. The statute doesn’t feature until the bottom of the first page in a paid-for ad. I digress …

Fiona Maye, 59, is a respected High Court judge, an accomplished pianist and singer with an interest in poetry. McEwan cleverly interweaves her personal and professional lives. There are two main threads. One is Fiona’s failing marriage to her lecturer husband, Jack. The other concerns Adam, a 17 year old Jehovah’s witness, in urgent need of a blood transfusion.

We’re also introduced to a potpourri of Fiona’s further case load. McEwan gives us an idea of the complexity and diversity of cases heard by her. They include highly emotive and sensitive issues: the right to life of conjoined twins; inter-jurisdictional child abduction; child arrangements where there are great moral, cultural and religious differences; and of course Adam’s case.

At times I had to stop myself thinking “What are these people doing in court? Why aren’t they in mediation? Maybe next time, Ian ..?

There was a sudden change in Fiona’s character in her handling of the Adam situation. The story derailed slightly at that point. The bright, intelligent and sensitive Fiona suddenly appeared to lose some of her crisp thinking. Perhaps that was intentional on McEwan’s part. Maybe it was meant to show the effect of the personal crisis she was going through.

By contrast, the way she handled the breakdown of her marriage, I thought, was believable. The hurt she felt following Jack’s revelation was reflected in the way she acted, and didn’t act. She could have told him how she felt. She didn’t. She might have explained why, from her point of view, they hadn’t been intimate for 7 weeks and a day, but no.

The Children Act is a couple of years old now, but I wanted to share it anyway. There must be others out there who don’t get round to reading as much as they would like. This is perfect – it’s short and it’s a good read. The format is unusual. Parts of it could have been presented as a collection of short stories. It think it’s set to become a film. Watch this space …

* I always feel slightly uncomfortable using that word – google. But it is in the dictionary now, so I’m moving away from the more cumbersome, “put in a search engine”.

Elisabet Anderson, FMC family mediator.

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I’m a mediator and a member of the Family Mediators Association. I’m also a non-practising solicitor. I help couples negotiate financial settlements and parenting arrangements in separation and divorce. As a family solicitor, I worked for one person. Now, as a mediator, I am able to support two people together to help them reach the best possible outcome for their whole family.