Chick Lit

Q. What is Chick Lit

A. Chick Lit, or Chick Fic, is often described as 'post-feminist fiction' -�that is, a post-feminist take on the mass-appeal romance novel. This could be defined as a literary genre featuring books written by women that focused on young, quirky female protagonists, who drink and smoke too much and can't find that perfect boyfriend.

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Q. What started it

A. The most infamous example is Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary. Written in 1997, the phenomenal popularity of her scatter-brained heroine has undoubtedly helped in the continued success of this style of novel, spawning many, often paler, imitations - not to mention brightly coloured book jackets.

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Q. A publishers dream

A. Twenty-something female-oriented fiction is indeed every publisher's dream come true, and it appears to be here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. There have been allegations that literary success is now as much about the looks of the author as the quality of your books. The 'gorge factor' - whether a new author is seen as gorgeous or not - has become a key criterion in deciding whether a book gets the kind of marketing push that will give it a chance of selling.

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Q. Is there a male equivalent

A. 'Lad's Lit' - featuring men in their 20s and 30s who can't express their emotions but like soccer and music a lot - have dominated some publishers lists for several years now.

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Nick Hornby is the godfather of Lad's Lit. He has had enormous success with Fever Pitch and High Fidelity, and has recently been joined by Tony Parsons, who had a massive hit in 2000 with Man and Boy, which was voted Book of The Year in the British Book Awards and sold almost a million copies.

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Q. And the inevitable backlash

A. It has already started, and a literary row is brewing. The novelist Beryl Bainbridge has dismissed Chick Lit as 'a waste of time, this froth sort of thing'. The writer and feminist icon Doris Lessing agrees. She cannot understand why women want to write what she calls 'instantly forgettable, poor literature'.

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However, Booker Prize-winner Pat Barker has defended the genre, saying that reading such books is just a phase that people go through, because younger people love reading books which 'confirm their identity', whereas older people feel less need for this kind of affirmation.

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By Simon Smith