As a recent English graduate with an ambition to work in book publishing, I’m pretty sure I could talk about books all day, in fact I know I can and almost certain it’s what I do spend most of my time talking about. One thing that’s always a debate in literature circles as well as between other readers and those beyond is that of the credibility of ‘chick lit’. I like to say that I am well read (but what reader doesn’t?), I alternate between the current award-winning authors and debut novelists still finding their feet, from absolute classics to the unknown stories that make the heart race and the emotions flow at each turn of the page. However, there is nothing wrong with picking up a romance book in between all of these, a typical ‘girl-meets-boy and falls in love’ story -the kinds of stories that have been deemed ‘trashy’ or a bit of ‘girly fluff’.

In my last semester of university I chose to take a ‘Contemporary Women’s Writing’ module, which is taught by one of the most feminist tutors you could imagine – the angry-at-men-all-the-time kind of feminist - and one day she asked if any of us read chick lit. Out of a class of 15 girls, I was the only one to put my hand up. It has become a taboo - how dare I when studying a module that hates on how belittled women are in literature, read books that promote the women as the man-seeking, happy ever after type? Spending three years studying literature classics, reading a bit of light-hearted fiction is a pleasure. I’m not brainwashed, I understand that sometimes it has to be taken with a pinch of salt, I don’t compare every relationship to the latest romance novel I’ve been reading, but surely at the end of the day it’s a bit of escapist fun? Plus maybe it does convey some reality to it? – Some people do have that fairy tale ‘happy ever after’, some of these books are the most realistic, down to earth stories in the fiction world which make them so relatable and so easy and enjoyable to read. Anyway, where’s the harm in a little light fantasising on the tube home every day?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with chick lit and I think the stigma attached to it is well overdue a re-evaluation. It has become such a massive part of today’s publishing market and there is always demand for the new books from the likes of Sophie Kinsella or Marian Keyes. These are the type of books that women do discuss over coffee, at book clubs, or pass on to each other in the group. These books are becoming an increasing social point amongst women and at the end of the day, if it gets people reading then it is always a good thing, no? Even if it has to be the likes of 50 Shades of Grey!