Inspiring women reveal their favourite books by female writers

Mary Beard launches #ThisBook, a project from Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction designed to find the novels written by women that have had the most impact on our lives
The Baileys Women’s Prize For Fiction’s #ThisBook project has got everyone at GH HQ talking. What could be better than an initiative that aims to get everyone sharing their favourite books by female writers on Twitter. 
Mary Beard is one of the 19 women – to celebrate 19 years of the Baileys Prize – asked to nominate her most inspirational read. She picked Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte because it’s ‘about what it is to be a female rebel’.
It was hard to pick a favourite - almost like picking a favourite child said one GHer - but Team GH have contributed their choices. 
A Top 20 of #ThisBook nominations will be revealed at the end of July. Visit www.thisbook.com for more information. What's your most life-changing read? 

'I have read Little Women countless times and it’s still my comfort read. Who wouldn’t get inspiration from Jo?'
Lindsay Nicholson, Editorial Director 

'I can remember literally hoovering up Donna Tartt's The Secret History and its atmosphere, plot and characters have stayed with me ever since. Its narrator is intoxicated with the clever college set he falls in with – and, never having set foot in a university, that's how I felt, too. I was in love with the dreamy, New England college setting, despite being told on the first page that a murder had taken place. And as I was about to give birth to my first child, I remember having time on my hands to read, turning the pages hungrily as it gave up its secrets as to why the murder had taken place.'
Michelle Hather, Deputy Editor

'I picked up an old copy of Sally Baxter - Girl Reporter by Sylvia Edwards at jumble sale when I was 10 and it inspired me to be a news reporter. Sally travels by helicopter to the Arctic Circle to get her scoop – an interview with a runaway heiress. Who wouldn't want to do that for a living!'
Jackie Brown, Features Editor  

'So many to choose from! Let’s go with Virginia Woolf’s The Waves for its rebel use of the English language. Time and again I've come back to this as an example of astonishingly beautiful prose. Reading it is like being knocked over by a wave – you can't understand the power of what's hit you until you're submerged.' 
Helen Young, Web Editor 

'I still remember the illicit excitement of finding The Women’s Room tucked in my mum’s bedside cabinet when I was about 15. I somehow sensed this was a Grown Up book so I read it sneaky chunks when she was out of the house. It’s no exaggeration to say it totally transformed the way I saw the world. It taught me to stand up for myself, follow my passions – and that housework is vastly overrated!'  
Joanne Finney, Books Editor

'Crystallising so many ideas about adolescence, first fallings-in-love, uncertainty and bewilderment about the world: I Capture The Castle.'
Caroline Parish, Chief Sub Editor

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