So what went wrong? Because the truth is, although there are notable exceptions, 98 per cent of all extant literature from the last 2,000 years has been set down by men. This doesn’t mean women weren’t writing, but that their writing was given little or no value. Last year I investigated an early mediaeval manuscript by a duchess called Dhuoda, written in the ninth century. Dhuoda was besieged in southern France, possibly dying of cancer. Her sons had been kidnapped and she knew she would not see them again, so she set down in poetry and prose everything she thought it worth their learning about the world. The words show extraordinary levels of intellect and education – Dhuoda spoke Greek, Latin and Hebrew.