The Reluctant Father

Phillip Toledano became a father at the age of forty. He fell in love with his daughter about a year and a half later, when he realized she was the most bewitching human being he’d ever seen. Initially, though, things were different. The Reluctant Father follows Phillip’s journey at the beginning of fatherhood. The first eighteen months were a time of torment, dismay, and confusion. The blinding light of unalloyed love came later. It’s a surprisingly frank, funny, and moving account, and he hopes his daughter won’t hold it against him when she’s grown up.

In many ways, The Reluctant Father is a sequel to the best-selling Days With My Father, which documented the three years Phillip spent taking care of his father, who suffered from dementia.

Phillip Toledano is an Englishman living in New York. With an established international reputation, he has been a photographer and artist for the last twelve years. In that time, he has published four books, ranging in subject from plastic surgery, phone sex, and failing businesses through to the last years he spent with his father. His work combines great poignancy with a rich vein of humor.