BIDDULPH, Steve

PERSONAL: Born in Australia; married; wife's name Sharon (a family therapist).

ADDRESSES: Home—New South Wales, Australia. Office—c/o Manhood Online, P.O. Box 231, St. Leonards, New South Wales 2065, Australia.

CAREER: Family therapist in Australia, beginning c. 1981. Manhood Online, advisor and contributor.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Secret of Happy Children: A New Guide for Parents, [Australia], 1984, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1990.

(With wife, Sharon Biddulph) The Making of Love, Doubleday (Lane Cove, New South Wales, Australia), 1988, published as The Secret of a Happy Family: Stay in Love as a Couple through Thick and Thin—and Even with Kids, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1989.

More Secrets of Happy Children, [Australia], 1996, HarperCollins Australia (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1999, Marlowe (New York, NY), 2003.

Raising Boys: Why Boys Are Different—and How to Help Them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men, Celestial Arts (Berkeley, CA), 1998.

Manhood: An Action Plan for Changing Men's Lives, Celestial Arts (Berkeley, CA), 1999.

(Editor) Stories of Manhood: Journeys into the Hidden Hearts of Men, Finch (Sydney, Australia), 2000.

(With Sharon Biddulph) Love, Laughter, and Parenting: In the Years from Birth to Six, Dorling Kindersley (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Australian author Steve Biddulph has spent many years as a family counselor and has penned several books related to family life. His titles, which have been published in his native country as well as in the United States, include The Secret of Happy Children: A New Guide for Parents, Raising Boys: Why Boys Are Different—and How to Help Them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men, and Manhood: An Action Plan for Changing Men's Lives. With his wife Sharon, he is also responsible for The Secret of a Happy Family: Stay in Love as a Couple through Thick and Thin—and Even with Kids.

In The Secret of Happy Children, Biddulph uses stories from his practice to illustrate parenting techniques. The book has met with generally favorable response, with Virginia Makins in the Times Educational Supplement praising the author for his inclusion of "assertiveness training for parents." Reviewers applauded The Secret of Happy Children as well, making favorable comparisons to more complicated child-rearing manuals and praising Biddulph's straightforward, clear, and direct approach. The therapist later followed up with More Secrets of Happy Children, which also drew positive comments from reviewers.

The Secret of a Happy Family was first published in Australia as The Making of Love. Biddulph and his wife, who is also a family therapist, again use stories from their practices to illustrate their advice. They move through all the stages of becoming a family, from early courtship between a man and a woman, to raising children. The pair address conflict resolution, family bonding, and communication skills. Jane Larkin, critiquing The Secret of a Happy Family in Booklist, judged that "practical guidance is presented in an optimistic and even entertaining fashion."

One of Biddulph's better-known later works is Raising Boys. In it, he presents his readers with some of the greater risks facing boys compared to girls, such as learning disabilities, violence, and suicide. Biddulph also argues that the presence of a good father is essential to a boy's development, asserting that fathers who work more than fifty-five hours a week cannot be good fathers because of their lack of time at home. In addition, he discusses the advantages and disadvantages of involvement in sports—beneficial except when boys become obsessed with winning. A Publishers Weekly reviewer described Raising Boys as a "highly practical guide" which "offers valuable perspectives to parents of both boys and girls."

Manhood tackles the question of how men have gone wrong in modern civilization and offers suggestions of what can be done to correct their course. The book has been warmly received by critics, therapists, and reviewers alike, and has spawned an online magazine and forum for men, Manhood Online, for which Biddulph is an advisor and contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1989, Jane Larkin, review of The Secret of a Happy Family: Stay in Love as a Couple through Thick and Thin—and Even with Kids, p. 1681.

Library Journal, May 15, 2003, Alice Hershier, review of More Secrets of Happy Children, p. 116.

Publishers Weekly, August 3, 1998, review of Raising Boys: Why Boys Are Different—and How to Help Them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men, p. 80.

Times Educational Supplement, May 16, 1986, Virginia Makins, review of The Secret of Happy Children: A New Guide for Parents, p. 26.*