IDENTIFIER Bookish broads

Know your Behn from your Butler? Your Shelley from your Shikibu? Get on the right page with our handy guide to some of the women writers who changed our world

Murasaki Shikibu Gazing up at the moon? Not wasted time in the 11th century, if like Murasaki, it inspires you to write the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji*

Agatha Christie Surfer, archaeologist and poison expert – like her characters, nothing about Christie was as it appeared. No mystery to why she’s so popular.

Ursula K Le Guin “Resistance and change often begin in art,” said Le Guin, celebrated for adding new perspectives into what was then seen as a man’s sci-fi world.

Aphra Behn

A restoration-era raconteur who penned four novels, 19 plays, poetry and more. Restored to wider fame thanks to the likes of Virgina Woolf.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Her belief in slavery’s abolition spread far beyond Uncle Tom’s Cabin, reaching over 2 million readers over its first decade.

Zitkála-Šá

Marrying the oral tradition of her Sioux heritage with Western literary culture, this ‘red bird’ called for the rights of Native Americans.

Mary Shelley

Shelley’s own story had a touch of the Gothic, featuring personal tragedy and poverty – and spawning Frankenstein’s monster at only 18.

Octavia Butler

Age 12, a bad sci-fi film convinced her she could do better. Her alternative universes tackled pressing issues, from racism to climate change.

Zora Neale Hurston Overlooked following fame in the Harlem Renaissance, she turned her anthropologist's eye on subjects from Vodou to women’s independence.