"Sperm tests, wild-goose chases and lashings of warm and quirky English humour." -Harpers & Queen Felix loves his wife Abbie. Abbie wants a baby. So Felix, not unaware of the thunderous ticking of Abbie's biological clock, wants to oblige - but their home has still to be blessed. Cue the usual round of doctors, tests, probes and scans - all to no avail. Adopted at birth herself, Abbie decides that if she can't have a child, then she must at least discover whose child she is. Soon, she and Felix are caught up in a make-or break search for family, identity and meaning. But neither of them can have any idea quite where the journey will take them... "With plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, touchy-feely bits and some choice observations about the things that men do, Armitage gives Homby a run for his money." -Daily Mirror "The laconic unshockable humour of Armitage's poems persists through most of The White Stuff... He has painful and truthful things to show about work, love, men." -Independent "Every detail of the small-town Northern settings rings true... his depiction of a marriage under strain gives the book considerable poignancy." -Maire Claire "Endearing, enjoyable...a jolly good read." -Big Issue