What women really want (and it's not chick lit)

Romance still very much in the air as poll of female readers reveals limited appeal of sex-and-office-politics genre

Two of Britain's foremost writers, Anita Brookner and Margaret Drabble, last night castigated publishers for pigeon-holing female readers after a survey of reading habits revealed that the favourite author of 20- and 30-something women is Stephen King.

A comprehensive study carried out to coincide with this week's Orange Prize for Fiction reveals that women are interested in a bewildering array of genres. The assumption that younger women, in particular, are obsessed with the sex lives of metropolitan career girls is challenged by a poll to discover favourite novelists. Not a single "chick lit" writer was in the top 25.

The list of favourites, in which romantic novelists feature alongside crime writers, science fiction and fantasy authors, suggests that, far from being concerned with narrow themes such as office sexual politics, women read a wide variety of books.

The top 25 includes the horror writers Stephen King and James Herbert as well as JRR Tolkein and the cult sci-fi writers Terry Pratchett and Dean Koontz. Top of the poll across all ages, however, was the queen of romantic fiction Catherine Cookson.

The research, carried out by Book Marketing, an industry monitor, using a random sample of 1,900 women aged 20-70, confirms the importance of bedtime reading for children in fostering an interest in literature in later life. It found that women read to by their parents at night now read, on average, four books a month - compared with two, at most, for those who were not.

More than a quarter of women in their twenties and thirties read "just to wind down" after their working day, rather than "as a hobby". While women across all age groups profess to read for an average of 30 minutes a day, a third of the respondents say they pick up books only for work or study.

By far the most intriguing finding, though, is the sheer breadth of reading enjoyed by women. The poll of favourite novelists is dominated by "airport bestseller" writers such as Cookson and Danielle Steel, who top it, and includes only a handful of acknowledged "classic" authors such as Jane Austen.

The findings were welcomed by Ms Brookner, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Hotel Du Lac, who dismissed the marketing of "chick lit" as glib "gender distinction".

"It's very misleading to generalise about what women like or want, and that's been done far too much recently," she said. "I'm absolutely against any sort of gender distinction in writing because reading is such an individual experience. That applies whether you are a man or a woman."

Similar sentiments were expressed by Ms Drabble, in remarks printed on the right.

However, some people expressed surprise at the absence from the top 25 of Helen Fielding, creator of Bridget Jones.

Her publisher, Andrew Kidd, said: "Chick lit tends to attract a relatively narrow age group, and given the broad age range responding to this survey the law of averages suggests most of those books would be excluded."

But Germaine Greer was perplexed. "What are we to make of it?" she asked. "Helen Fielding isn't in this one, but her book is way up there in the BBC's Big Read survey."

'I buy spontaneously. I wouldn't rule out a typically male read'

The Independent on Sunday asked women in Borders bookshop in Charing Cross Road, central London, why they were buying novels by the five authors who topped the survey.

Catherine Cookson: Latter-day Charlotte Brontë famous for rags-to-riches tales of swooning maidens and brooding heroes

Fan: Alice Castell, 28, policy adviser, south-west London

Book: Tilly Trotter, An Omnibus

"I read a range of fiction and non-fiction novels. I know Catherine Cookson's reputation and enjoy books with a sense of purpose. I tend to avoid older authors because they have a different view on the world than I do."

Danielle Steel: "Chick lit" writer for the over-40s, whose Dynasty-style bonkbusters have sold 380 million copies worldwide

Fan: Tosin Adenre, 29, para-legal, Canning Town, London

Book: The Long Road Home

"I like the title: it could be self-explanatory or have ambiguity to it. I read the blurb and it definitely looks like a good read. The story appears significant: a journey through life. I choose books according to my broad personal taste, not necessarily what may be targeting me specifically."

Stephen King: High priest of the doorstop horror novel, whose books have sold more than 100 million copies around the globe

Fan: Anniken Bjornas, 30, teacher, Norway

Book: Dreamcatcher

"This looks exciting, dark and mysterious. I like King's descriptive writing. I'm spontaneous when choosing books to buy. I wouldn't completely rule out a book that seemed like a typical male read."

Maeve Binchy: "Aga saga" novelist famous for smouldering romances and rites-of-passage novels in rural Ireland

Fan: Gail Reed, 45, housewife, Guernsey

Book: Quentins

"I have read all the other books in the series - this is the latest. I like her style and the pace of her novels. I don't just read romance novels and am not put off with titles that look like 'male' books."

Jane Austen: Everyone's favourite Victorian satirist, the TV adaption of whose books gave us heaving corsets and Colin Firth in waterlogged breeches

Fan: Julia Taylor, 47, Highgate, London

Book: Emma

"I'm interested in the social issues and the customs of that era. I'm aware of the plot of this book, and I think that the young female characters make an interesting topic. I read a lot of works by male writers, and I'm not deterred if the content doesn't seem directly associated with a female audience."

Sophia Lotts

Novels are marketed as products

Margaret Drabble

Publishers are always trying to exploit the last success, and the original writer is the one who creates a new genre instead of repeating the last. These are often the writers who publishers don't know what to do with - but when they take a risk and publish a new kind of book that becomes an unexpected success, suddenly it's "wow".

I don't particularly like "chick lit", partly because I'm too old. If you are over 35 you tend not to be so interested in the sex lives of 18-year-olds or office politics. I don't think you're interested in sexual courtship because you've already been there and you're married or have a partner.

This promotion of "chick lit" is really a problem of changes in the book-selling industry and the "buying" of space in bookshops, which is a worrying trend. When there are whole tables promoting one genre, there isn't room for the range of books that would have been there had there not been pressure to market a certain genre.

I never walk into a bookshop without knowing what I'm after, and I get annoyed when people say, "oh, you can have this one as well" - I don't want two or three books for the price of one. I just want the book I want. Books aren't products - they are individual creations.

Margaret Drabble CBE is the author of 'The Ice Age' and 'The Peppered Moth'