Description
Dr. Helen Taylor’s latest book, Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives, received wide acclaim in 2020 and featured as Radio 4 Book of the week. The research for the book involved Helen conducting over 500 interviews with readers and writers, including Hilary Mantel, Helen Dunmore, Katie Fforde, and Sarah Dunant, asking why women read fiction. She argues that female readers are key to the future of fiction and considers why women are the main buyers of fiction, members of book clubs, attendees at literary festivals and why Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre still resonate so strongly with British women readers. Insight is also given into the challenges faced by female writers.
Helen, a longstanding friend of the Festival, is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Exeter, author, curator and was the first director of the Liverpool Literary Festival.
Join us this evening for what promises to be a talk that is fascinating and informative in equal measures. Following Helen’s presentation, she will be happy to take questions.
