[5] After graduating in Russian and Arabic from the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster), Figes became a sales representative for the Pandora feminist publishing house (an imprint of Routledge Kegan Paul[6]), later a publicist and editor for the same firm.
[11] Rebecca Abrams wrote in The Independent on Sunday, "combines personal opinion, anecdote, medical information, social history and (a few) statistics.
"[12] A decade later, Abrams described it as "taboo-busting" in laying "bare the secret ambivalence and confusion at the heart of many women's experience of motherhood.
[7] For Couples: the Truth (2010), Figes interviewed 120 men and women in a relationship, both heterosexual and gay, about all aspects of their lives.
[9] Cassandra Jardine in The Daily Telegraph wrote that it is "a book that lingers in the mind, with a fundamentally upbeat message".
Figes wrote: "We were holding out our hands in forgiveness to shake those of younger Germans, who also bore no responsibility for the past at a time of growing nationalism and suspicion of 'the other' in Europe.