h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Good characterisations of women by male authors? I might nominate 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khalid Hosseini, which follows the fortunes of two Afghan women, who come from different backgrounds but end up married to the same, brutal husband. Mariam's story is particularly sad.

Good characterisations of men by female authors? I was intrigued by 'Master Georgie', by Beryl Bainbridge. When Georgie goes off to the Crimean War as a surgeon, he is followed by three devoted friends. But we are left unsure about the characters' motivation.

Interesting. I don't know those books, I'll have to look for them.

I'd definitely recommend Pat Barker's First World War trilogy. She's very insightful about men in wartime.

That's Khaled Hosseini, not Khalid, Minorvogonpoet! I've read that story, I recommend it Dmitri, as well as The Kite Runner by the same author. Haven't read Master Georgie, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Anyways my own stories so far feature 'heroines'. But they are not very hung up on being women or being feminine; they come from a society where gender is not considered very important; there is a much greater variety of 'kinds' of people, and biological sex is not a very major determinant of the kind of person you are (they're fantasy stories). I've no idea if I'm managing to make this 'work'. Will see if this stuff ever gets published.

Have you posted your stories here, Willem? I'd be interested to see them.

Hi Minorvogonpoet, I had some of those stories here ages ago before the BBC takeover but I took them down, because I was worried about copyright issues. I still am, a bit ... I really want to get this stuff published 'for real'. Anyways currently I'm working my characters into novel-length stories, I've two finished but the first one is a bit weird, now working on the third novel which is a sequel to the second, will return to the first and try and patch it up too. So ... I don't know when this stuff will be ready but I hope it doesn't take too long.