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Generation Maybe
  • Published: 1 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529971514
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304

Generation Maybe

Why We're Having Fewer Children, and What It Means for Us All

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
19 Jan 2027
EBook
1 Oct 2026
Audiobook
1 Oct 2026
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A bold yet balanced investigation into one of the most personal choices in the world, which explores how a multitude of individual decisions have led to one of the biggest global challenges we’re facing today: the baby bust

The definitive investigation by an award-winning journalist into why – across continents, classes, cultures and religions – we’re having fewer children

In Britain, one in five couples have no children, and almost half of all families have only one. The populations of China, Japan, Russia and Italy are shrinking. Pronatalists cry that feminism has killed the family. Governments throw money at childcare. Would-be grandparents wring their hands at the apparent selfishness of the young. But the conversation is in the wrong place.

Camilla Cavendish offers a startling blend of data and stories to uncover what is really driving the baby bust, meeting people with a diverse range of experiences, including millennial women going it alone, men who've missed out and communities quietly bucking the trend. Rather than the standard economic explanations, her interviews point to a myriad of cultural influences: from a dating recession to a loss of faith in the future; from the pressures of modern parenting to infertility struggles; from the atomisation of society to a deeply human instinct to copy one another that’s amplified by the smartphone.

By examining the profound implications of a world in which fewer children are born, Generation Maybe argues for a future in which we respect the happily childfree while genuinely empowering those who long for children. Incisive, frank, eye-opening and humane, this book is for anyone who cares about the world we may – or may not – choose to make for the next generation.
  • Published: 1 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529971514
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304
Categories:

About the author

Camilla Cavendish

Camilla Cavendish is a leading journalist, broadcaster and commentator. She is a weekly columnist for the Financial Times and author of Extra Time: 10 Lessons for an Ageing World, which charted the global challenges of longevity. She is a research fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, a visiting faculty member at King’s College London, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords and former head of the 10 Downing Street Policy Unit – the second woman ever to lead it. Her awards include the Paul Foot Award for investigative and campaigning journalism, and Wincott Senior Financial Journalist of the Year. Cavendish is a mother of three.
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Praise for Generation Maybe

Essential reading for anyone curious enough to ask where we are heading as a human race — and that’s all of us. Packed full of mind-blowing facts that you will be quoting to friends, this is a wise, compassionate and non-judgmental story of our times, told with empathy and real understanding

Emily Maitlis

With her characteristic elegance and insight, Camilla Cavendish has written the definitive account of one of the great challenges facing too many nations: the postponement of parenthood and the collapse in the average birth rate. Generation Maybe is vital reading for anyone worried about whether we can avoid a dire future of gerontocratic stagnation

Robert Peston

An entertaining and meaningful read

Claudia Goldin

Fascinating

Emily Bootle

Generation Maybe upends many of the assumptions that used to govern this debate [and] calls for a radical redesign of society around family life ... As a lively, deeply empathetic survey of a global crisis, Generation Maybe excels… it will make you want to revolt or go forth and multiply. Or both

Johanna Thomas-Corr, Sunday Times

Camilla’s thinking is fresh and fascinating

Amol Rajan