Helen Taylor - Why Women Read Fiction

What is it about reading fiction that women love?   Where and when do women read?  And why is it that women make up the majority of book-club and library members, audiences at literary festivals and bookshop events?  Drawing on interviews with more than 500 women, Taylor – the Emeritus Professor of English at Exeter University - reveals how reading fiction has become, for many women, an important and integral part of life. Whether as a means of being alone, or a chance to be part of a community, reading fiction is a life-enhancer and even, sometimes, a life-saver. 

Chaired by Claire Malcolm New Writing North