Finding your way without the social template of romantic love is a tough challenge, but writers from Deborah Levy to Hanya Yanagihara offer clues to how it can be done
Women’s role in espionage, largely written by women, leans less on explosions and more on perception, nuance and explorations of sacrifice – though they still kick ass
From sunny novels that revel in the picturesque to stark reports from one of the poorest regions in northern Europe, this county’s literature deserves more than a visit
You might not hear much about it if you study philosophy, but this rich intellectual tradition is centuries old and often more open to the mess of life than its male counterpart
Never mind heaving bosoms and whimpering grunts, some writers – from Sally Rooney to DH Lawrence – depict genuine, sometimes graphic, intimacy in all its forms
Old women in novels have too often been malign or feeble, but fiercer and more vital senior citizens can be found in authors from Agatha Christie to Elizabeth Strout
The genre is often presumed to be one ‘for boys’. Novelists including Virginia Woolf and Georgette Heyer prove that women are just as capable of bold escapes and derring-do as men
At war with the establishment, putting themselves in reckless danger and succumbing to terrible habits, these unreliable figures are dependably entertaining
So often defying the conventions of their age, these inspiring figures are also dependable boons for nephews and nieces in books by authors from Jane Austen to JK Rowling