Afua Hirsch introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Maggie Tulliver from George Eliot’s ‘Mill on the Floss’ – and extracts the lessons we could all learn from her. Recorded at this week’s Hay Festival 2018,

Afua is a writer, broadcaster and journalist; she is also a barrister with a speciality in international development. Her first book, titled ‘Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was published in January 2018.

In this series of The Essay, five female writers offer a personal guide to favourite and well-known female fictional characters - extracting the lessons we could all learn from them.

The writers in this series include historian Bettany Hughes, poets Fiona Sampson and Mab Jones and award-winning novelist Francesca Rhydderch.

With Lunchtime Concert, In Tune, Free Thinking, The Verb and The Listening Service all broadcasting from the festival, The Essay is part of Hay Week at BBC Radio 3.