Women and Fiction

For International Women’s Day, lets think about the female in fiction.

Girls grow up reading about adventurous girls – think of George in Blyton’s books, Nancy and Peggy in Ransome, Hermione in the Potter books, Lara in the Pullman stories.

But when puberty strikes, the spirit of adventure seems to depart, and the heroines swop their dungarees for slinky frocks. They turn their gaze to the womanly arts and yearn to earn the love of a Good Man. Maybe real life takes over, their hormones change or we simply can’t have both men and women going out into the world and doing feats of derring do. For men, and books with male heroes, do keep up the adventurous fictional life long after their childhood and teenage years end and real life takes over.

Why don’t we do the same for women? Read the article in the Guardian: click