Equal writes and the best new women fiction: Book reviews – Express.co.uk

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Attack Of The 50ft Women:

How Gender Equality Can Save The World! by Catherine Mayer (HQ, 20)

During the q&a session at the end, Mayer found herself asking whether anyone else thought there should be greater focus on gender issues in mainstream politics.

An appeal for like-minded people to join her later in the bar led to the seeds of a new political party being sown.

In Attack Of The 50ft Women, Mayer tells the story of the evolution of the Womens Equality Party, a party that in the London elections in May 2016 polled a 5.2 per cent share of the vote, despite having existed for just over a year.

Mayers book goes beyond the brief history of the party to look at gender imbalances across the globe and in all walks of life. Her argument is that gender inequality is detrimental to men and women alike.

This could easily have been a book of pure rhetoric albeit inspiring and engaging rhetoric but her arguments are backed up by comprehensive research, not least with regard to the economic implications of the gender gap. She cites multiple studies linking female executives with profitability and a report forecasting a boost of 8.3 trillion to global GDP by 2025 if the gender gap narrows.

Mayer also argues that the structures of patriarchy, not least the pressures on men to be alpha males, harm men as much as women: Because of these structures, boys struggle at school; suicide rates are highest among young males, who are also more likely to murder and be murdered; and men drink more heavily and more frequently end up in prison.

However, the book focuses primarily on the inequities faced by women. She describes the glass cliff and saviour effect where women are catapulted to positions of power only when crisis hits (sound familiar, Theresa May?) then cast aside when stability resumes. She investigates global inequalities in pay and the restrictions faced by both mothers and fathers.

Comprehensive, wide-ranging and journalistically rigorous, Attack Of The 50ft Women is an important and timely book. Buy it for yourself, your husband or partner. Most importantly, buy it for your children.

Hannah Beckerman

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Utopia For Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, 16.99

Should all human beings be paid a living wage regardless of whether they work or not? Rutger Bregman, a 28-year-old Dutch historian and economist, passionately advocates the Universal Basic Income.

In his new book, Bregman suggests governments could work towards a new Utopia by abandoning the welfare system and giving everybody free money.

Immediately we imagine everyone spending all day with their feet up watching TV before cheerfully collecting a pay cheque. But Bregman cites numerous studies that suggest people receiving his Universal Basic Income would carry on working as normal.

He also provides the facts and figures to show how unemployed people receiving Universal Basic Income are more likely to find work than people on means-tested benefits. Whats more, our current welfare system costs more to administer than it saves the taxpayer

And we will all be grateful for the money as more of us are forced to job-share and work fewer hours as technology makes our jobs obsolete.

Poor children tend to be less well educated, they work less and have worse health. If these problems were eradicated by Universal Basic Income, each child would have effectively paid back the extra money received by the time they reached middle age.

I was moved and convinced by Bregman saying we might not achieve Utopia but could find solace in working towards a fairer world.

Bregmans style is sometimes cheesy but his book is energetic, passionate and rigorously intelligent. His commonsensical ideas deserveto be gratefully welcomed.

Jake Kerridge

VERDICT: 4/5

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Fancy an escapist read? Fanny Blake chooses the best new womens fiction

Orange Blossom Days by Patricia Scanlan (Simon & Schuster, 13.99)

La Joya de Andalucia is a plush seafront apartment complex on the Spanish coast and home to a community of residents from all over Europe.

They include an Irish couple woken from their dream of a leisurely retirement by the demands of their family, a Texan wife who pursues a younger man and a Spaniard in a difficult marriage who sets his sights on the presidency of La Joyas management committee.

A bright, sunny read in which these lives interweave with unexpected results.

The Little Teashop Of Lost And Found by Trisha Ashley (Bantam, 9.99)

Alice Rose was found abandoned as a baby near Haworth on the Yorkshire moors and she returns years later to look for her birth mother.

At the same time she is transforming a rundown caf into a premier afternoon tearoom. She quickly makes friends, including a dishy neighbour, but the path to achieving her goals is littered with obstacles, the story of Alices birth and abandonment adding depth and poignancy.

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The Little Breton Bistro by Nina George(Abacus, 12.99)

From the author of The Little Paris Bookshop comes a new life-affirming novel. On a day trip to Paris, Marianne Messman throws herself into the Seine, desperate to escape her loveless marriage.

However fate intervenes and she is rescued from the brackish water. In hospital, Marianne spies a small painted tile of a Breton fishing village which beckons her to a new life, so she follows her heart to Kerdruc in Brittany.

At sixty years old, she believed her life was over, but the message of this gentle but pacey page-turner is that new loves, new friends and confidence can be found at any age.

Secrets Of A Happy Marriage by Cathy Kelly (Orion, 14.99)

The build-up to Edward Brannigans 70th birthday celebrations proves a catalyst for family drama. His new wife Bess is struggling to fit in, his daughter Jojo loathes her new stepmother and his niece Cari must face her ex-fianc at the party. Its an involving, heart-warming read about family, friends, love and disappointment.

About Last Night by Catherine Alliott (Michael Joseph, 12.99)

Molly, a widow, lives alone in a remote crumbling farmhouse. Her unexpected inheritance of a London house offers the change she longs for except first she will have to evict the elderly gent who lives there. The decision to return to the capital is complicated further when a figure from her past appears. An engaging, light-hearted romp.

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Equal writes and the best new women fiction: Book reviews - Express.co.uk