Extreme Understanding 
Jenny Diski
As any adult can tell you – or any adult not given over entirely to mawkish and convenient notions of innocence – children are born spies. Every parent (previously an independent individual pursuing their own interests and desires) knows: a child arrives and it starts to watch you. You are never alone again, not really. There is someone who has arrived and will not go away; who not only watches you but also possesses their own consciousness, has views, puts two and two together and understands more or less than you want them to, but either way distorts the picture you have of your life.
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Jenny Diski’s new novel, Apology for the Woman Writing, will be published in November. She is currently bobbing about on the South Atlantic.
Other articles by this contributor:
Diary · The Friendly Spider Programme
Giving Hysteria a Bad Name · At home with the Mellys
Who wears hats now? · Jenny Diski walks back to the future
It’s so beautiful · V is for Vagina
A keen horseman with a new pair of green suede chaps is guaranteed to ride into the sunset · A Slight and Delicate Creature: The Memoirs of Margaret Cook
The Housekeeper of a World-Shattering Theory · Mrs Freud
XXX · Doing what we’re told
Seriously Uncool · Susan Sontag
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