Although this ‘menopause memoir’ doesn’t break new ground, it is still vital reading

With its intimate tone, honesty and humour, The Shift sits comfortably within the “menopause memoir” genre. Baker divulges her midlife biological embarrassments and steadily softballs the book’s ultimate journey, away from shock and self-pity towards focus, harnessed anger and recalibration.

It covers well-worn but still necessary territory, starting from the early signs of the menopause, midlife weight gain and appearance changes: “Honest to God it was as if the fat fairies had come during the night and coated me with an extra layer of insulation.”