William Leith is in the vanguard of the New Masculinity. In all his work, the best-selling British author presents an effective new model of manhood: centred on union rather than individualistic assertion, strong without being aggressive and distanced from the pathology of overachievement.
His first memoir, The Hungry Years: Confessions of a Food Addict, remains one of the finest treatises ever written on male addiction, and his latest, Bits of Me are Falling Apart: Dark Thoughts from the Middle Years, is his response to being left by the mother of Billy, his then three-year-old son - and then, separated from Billy. ('And now I can hear his voice! Billy! A balloon expands in my chest. My son!')
A deeply affecting neo-Joycean account of a single day in Leith's life as a separated father, Bits of Me is not only a testament to love but a work of literary worth.
'Look at the world we've created, and how it works,' Leith, 48, says with some incredulity. 'It's guys who have created it. Discoveries of the differences between male and female brains show that the male brain is all about making things into systems and little machines and the female brain is about understanding interrelating, and not in a mechanistic way.
'Men are in trouble. All of our little machines break down, then we get in a rage about it. Our machines - corporate finance, whatever - are all falling apart,' he says.
Leith is 1.8 metres tall and shambling, a great bear of a man, stubbled and bespectacled, unexpectedly hilarious, with coal-dark eyes, an unruly quiff of blackish hair and a compellingly intense passion for intellectual engagement.
He frowns and paces, squints into the middle distance and beguiles with a soft, deep and surprisingly melodic voice. His worn jeans seem somehow too large and his shirt is untucked and all in all, there is the somewhat befuddled air of a lost child about him - until his eyes lock onto yours and the observations begin.