In the course of his long literary career, Samuel Johnson reviewed only one novel. Who was it by? None other than the "preposterously confident” Charlotte Lennox, a force in eighteenth-century prose and a model for Jane Austen – Min Wild tells us more; What happens if you ask a literary critic to watch top-grossing (pun intended) Hollywood comedies from the past three decades? Robert Douglas-Fairhurst explains how comedy reflects broader culture and anxieties; How are women treated in film and television? Is there cause for celebration? Alice Wadsworth joins us in the studio to discuss.

Books

Charlotte Lennox: An independent mind by Susan Carlile 

Stealing the Show: How women are revolutionizing television by Joy Press 

Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before: Subversive portrayals in speculative film and TV by Diana Adesola Mafe 

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