#ThisBook

The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction winner will be announced tomorrow. Ahead of that, they have launched #ThisBook – an exciting social media campaign to find the novels written by women that have most impacted the nation.

To support the launch, a diverse selection of inspiring women, including Jennifer Saunders, Dawn O’Porter, Susanna Reid and Martha Lane Fox, have come together to encourage book lovers across the nation to nominate the novel, written by a woman, which has had the biggest impact on their lives.

My chosen #ThisBook is Oryx and Crake by the awesome Margaret Atwood. I first read it when it came out over 10 years ago, but it's one of those books that stays with you. Probably because it's terrifying. In a 'this is totally the way things are headed' kind of way. In fact, Atwood pulled the following developments directly from the headlines of our newspapers, magazines and websites.

The story is told by Snowman, who is mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and wondering what happened to his once close friend Crake and where the world went wrong: genetically altered animals, the elimination of the middle class, ecological disaster, the commodification of just about everything, and humanity's extinction. You can read an except here.

There are two more books in the series, The Year of The Flood, and MaddAddam, which was published last summer.