Parenthood is not a human right and the NHS should not fund fertility treatment, the author Lionel Shriver has said.

Shriver, who wrote the bestselling novel We Need To Talk About Kevin, which dealt with the taboo of a mother struggling to love a difficult child, said she had known she did not want children from the age of eight.

Speaking at The Hay Literary Festival in Wales, Shriver said she had given up on the idea of parenting after watching her mother clean up sick and trudge around the supermarket.

“It didn’t look very glamorous to me and clearly there would be a lot more time to do fun things if you didn’t have any kids,” she told the audience in Hay-on-Wye.

“What killed the familial project for me was in my early teens and I did a lot babysitting and they were Holy terrors, and I did not want to invite into my house someone who is going to throw a toy truck at my head.

“I have advocated for a long time that I think in order for the NHS to survive they have to shrink their core purpose down to the curing of disease and not the curing if dissatisfaction, and that means, no parenthood is not a right, and it’s an economic issue it’s not because I hate children.