I detest the masculine point of view

"I detest the masculine point of view. I am bored by his heroism, virtue and honour. I think the best these men can do is not talk about themselves any more"

Virginia Woolf

beauty is woman's sceptre

"Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round it's gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison"

-Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication for the Rights of Women  

distinguished women

"If we revert to history, we shall find that women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex"

- Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication for the Rights of Women 

Robert Galbraith

Robert Galbraith author of The Cuckoo's Calling has recently been unmasked as the pseudonym of legendary Harry Potter writer J.K Rowling. The full story can be read here.

  

 I personally think it's a massive shame for J.K that she has been outed. She has already released one adult novel post-Harry Potter, The Casual Vacancy under her own name, and I do think the criticism and attention the book was received was influenced both positively and negatively by her fame. So I completely understand why she would to anonymously release The Cuckoo's Calling, so she could get a genuine critique writing in new genre. I won't be surprised if she sues the solicitors who leaked the story to the papers.

 It's not as if she needs the money, I think she genuinely writes as she enjoys it and I doubt she was concerned at the initially low sales of The Cuckoo's Calling. Of course now that is known that she wrote it, the book is number one of the best selling lists and signed first editions are selling for £3000. 

I think it's a shame that she used a male name as a pseudonym. Women authors are still under represented on best-selling lists  and are reviewed substantially less than their male counterparts. Also crime is a genre dominated by male authors and perceived to have a predominately male readership. J.K is a respected female author, and I think she has missed an opportunity here to promote other women authors, after all when she first wrote Harry Potter, people assumed she was a man because of her gender neutral initials.   

  

I am interested in reading The Cuckoo's Calling and admittedly probably wouldn't be so intrigued if the author wasn't J.K.              

What do you think? Will you be reading The Cuckoo's Calling? Why do you think J.K Rowling used a pseudonym? 

Women Writers- sisters doing it for themselves

Female authors are slowly gaining recognition in the media, for the first time the Granta list, which celebrates twenty  promising British authors under forty, comprises of more women than men. It is also refreshing to see the addition of authors from diverse backgrounds, including Somalian, Bangladeshi and Chinese. For the Granta list to remain relevant it is important that the authors chosen reflect Britain and modern British Literature, which is multicultural and complex.

 I've only read three of the authors featured on the Granta list, Xiaolu Guo, Ned Beauman and Zadie Smith, but I'm looking forward to checking out the others. 

Xiaolu Guo, one of the women of this years Granta list, I love her hat 

I have read debates recently about whether it is still necessary to still have female only awards for literature, such as the Women's Prize for Fiction, personally I believe it is still needed. I was shocked to read on VIDA about the disparity between the number of male authors reviewed compared to women authors. The men outweigh the women, clearly showing that male authors are getting more publicity, more acclaim and more notice than their female counterparts. Below are graphs, taken form VIDA, that show a gender count of bylines and authors reviewed in literary publications. Even Granta, if unequal, showing that the majority female list this year is an anomaly.