Some radical pundits predicted the end of books, saying we’d download special files to a small handheld computer that displayed the pages of a book and read it like we do on paper. At the time, the technology was in its infancy.

Because of the overwhelming number of books targeted at women, it’s tempting to think a female aesthetic takes hold once a book enters the machinery of publishing. After all, women occupy marketing and editorial positions in overwhelming numbers.

The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood has been the target of many brickbats in her time thanks to never fully accepting the term ‘science fiction’ about her work. Some would say the criticism is deserved – particularly after the author herself told the BBC science fiction was about ‘talking squids in outer space’.