“Harry Potter” on list of 20 inspirational novels by women

Over the last few months, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction has been running a campaign called #ThisBook to find out which books by women have changed and inspired people’s lives. The campaign was run on social media, with well-known figures offering their personal favorite:

Back in May 2014, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction launched the #ThisBook campaign. The aim was simple: to find out which books, written by women, have had the biggest impact on readers.
We enlisted nineteen inspirational women – from Dawn O’Porter to Jennifer Saunders, Sandi Toksvig to Joanna Trollope – to launch the campaign and tell us about the books that most impacted, shaped or changed their lives.

The final list of 20 was released today, and it was not a surprise to find that Harry Potter had come in at No. 4!

The list was topped by To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, followed by The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) and Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte).

Since nearly half the list were novels written before 1960, it was a great feat (but not surprising) for Harry Potter to be included! It is also the only series to be on the list.

Of course Harry Potter has featured on many similar lists before. Find out more about these lists – including this list of top 10 favorite novels and this one – here.

See the full list here.

Should Harry Potter have been higher on the list? Would you have voted for Harry Potter in the #ThisBook campaign? Which books would be on your list?