The winners
#ThisBook is a social media campaign launched by the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and with their results; Harper Lee has revealed that To Kill a Mockingbird had got the vote for the most influential book written by a female writer.
The campaign began back in May 2014, supported by the likes of Jennifer Saunders, Susannah Reid, Kate Mosse and Martha Lane Fox and asked that readers nominate a book that had the most affect on their life.
To Kill a Mockingbird of course won, but was closely followed by dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale and Jane Eyre.
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University said: “With human rights under attack the world over, the enduring appeal of Harper Lee's great tale gives hope that justice and equality might yet triumph over prejudice. “
Classic novels still continue their appeal through the decades with books like Little Women and Middlemarch standing the test of time. Many fellow celebrity authors also cast their vote, with JK Rowling opting for The Song of Achilles and Fern Briton choosing Gone with the Wind.
Newsreader Susannah Reid and Gwendoline Christie voted for I Capture the Castle as the book that had changed their life most after reading it.
- To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
- The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
- Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
- Harry Potter – J.K Rowling
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
- Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
- Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
- Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
- The Secret History – Donna Tartt
- I Capture The Castle – Dodie Smith
- The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
- Beloved – Toni Morrison
- Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
- We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
- The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
- Middlemarch – George Eliot
- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
- The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing
- The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
- The Women’s Room – Marilyn French
Tagged in Fern Britton