Bitch

Mr Darwin, your time is up...This is the evolutionary reboot us bitches have been waiting for.

Sue Perkins

Beautifully written, very funny and deeply important - Lucy Cooke blows two centuries of sexist myths right out of biology.

Professor Alice Roberts

This is a vital book that blew me away; kick -ass, informative and astonishing . Discovering how Darwin ingrained and entrenched the patriarchy is hugely illuminating to our present culture. Give her a series immediately!

Doon McKinnon

Fun, informative and revolutionary all at once, Bitch should be required reading in school. This is a joyous, and often hilarious, romp in which Cooke simultaneously does justice to the actual data, gives voice to the substantive contributions of women scientists, and demolishes bias, blindness and ignorance about sex in the academy and in the public. After reading this book one will never look at a clownfish, a barnacle, an orca, an albatross or a human the same way again. And the world will be better for it.

Augustin Fuentes, professor of anthropology at Princeton University and author of The Creative Spark

Lucy Cooke's scientific and brilliant takedown of stereotypes of female submissiveness in the animal kingdom: 'Male animals led swashbuckling lives of thrusting agency ... while females meekly followed'. So went the received wisdom when broadcaster and author Cooke first studied zoology. This revelatory, fabulously entertaining book shows how deluded that thinking is. From the dominant female lemurs of Madagascar, and the murderous meekat mothers of the Kalahari, to female fruit flies that play the field, Cooke introduces dozens of animals whose natural behaviour preferences dismantle the hoary old stereotypes.

Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller: EDITOR'S CHOICE

A complete and precise exploration of sex , what a joy!

Chris Packham

It's humorous, absorbing, sometimes shocking (for a variety of reasons), and bound to be a conversation starter. It certainly prompted some raised eyebrows and discussions when I shared tidbits of information from it with friends and family.

BBC Wildlife

With charismatic charm and plenty of rigour, Cooke brings together a host of the finest zoological minds to shatter decades of outdated scientific ideas about what it is to be female of the species. If I could print out every page and put it on a t-shirt, I would.

Jules Howard

Lucy Cooke's marvellous Bitch blasts the dust off stuffy old ideas to celebrate the true and wildly diverse influence of femal creatures throughout the animal kingdom, revealing them to be every bit as promiscuous, competitive, aggressive and dynamic as males ... In chapters fizzing with X-rated factoids, Cooke merrily demolishes myth after myth about our wild sisters ... Never mean or boring. It's exhilarating to zip through the world with her as she points out what has been missed or misinterpreted.

Helen Brown, Telegraph

A colourful, committed and deeply informed book.

James McConnachie, Sunday Times

Hits the right balance between informative and entertaining; popular science fans will want to check it out.

Publisher's Weekly

A book that is tearing down the stereotypes and the biases. Absolutely fascinating.

Woman's Hour

A dazzling, funny and elegantly angry demolition of our preconceptions about female behaviour and sex in the animal kingdom ... Bitch is a blast. I read it, my jaw sagging in astonishment, jotting down favourite parts to send to friends and reading out snippets gleefully

The Observer

A glorious debunking of gender stereotypes ... A bold and gripping takedown of the sexist mythology baked into biology ... Full of marvellous surprises.

Josie Glausiusz, Guardian

Best books of 2022 so far: Zoologist Lucy Cooke's hilarious and enlightening book reclaims evolutionary biology for females of all species.

New Statesman

Brilliant ... Cooke is a superb science writer

Carol Tavris, TLS

Surprising sex lives of the animal kingdom: From bondage-loving spiders to 'Scrooge-like' lobsters who save their sperm for a female who's 'worth it', BITCH lifts the lid on kinky creatures

Claire Toureille, Daily Mail

She introduces us to a marvelous zoetrope of animals-not just primates, but venomous intersex moles, hyenas that give birth through their clitoris, filicidal mother meerkats, and postmenopausal orcas.

The Atlantic

[An] effervescent exposé ... [A] playful, enlightening tour of the vanguard of evolutionary biology.

Scientific American

If Lucy Cooke's new book about female animals were filmed for TV, it would surely be preceded by a warning that it contains sex and violence right from the start. It also contains humour and a glorious rebuttal of everything we have believed about gender since Charles Darwin got it all wrong ... Gloriously original ... It shows women of all species are even more fascinating than we ever thought.

Charlotte Heathcote, Daily Mirror and Daily Express

By analysing numerous animals, this sparkling attack on scientific sexism draws on many scientists - of multiple genders - to correct stereotypes of the active male versus passive female.

Nature

A charming mix of wit and scientific analysis... Aside from knocking males off their evolutionary perch and empowering women, this book can inspire the LGBTQ community, as it's clear that their identities and lives are reflected across the natural world.

Irish Times

This book is not just hilarious, but properly important, laying out how Victorian views on gender shaped evolutionary biology and caused the female of the species to be overlooked and misunderstood by the scientific establishment. You'll never look at a hyena in the same way again.

Sally Phillips, The Week