6. THE HANDMAID’S TALE Margaret Atwood 7. MAURICE E. M. Forster

In a near-future totalitarian America – now known as the Republic of Gilead – women are forced to become ‘Handmaids’ and are assigned to elite couples to bear their children. Heroine Offred describes her previous life and her subjugated present in this compelling dystopian feminist chiller.

Written in 1913 but not published until 1971, the year after the author’s death, this tender romance is regarded as one of the most groundbreaking works of literature, crashing through sexual and class barriers. At a time when homosexuality was illegal, upper crust Maurice Hall pursues his true passions, including a romance with working-class Clive.