I am usually a fan of Sandi Toksvig and find her quite amusing but this book is just a shameful attempt to fill the heads of young girls with feminist nonsense and give them ideas beyond their station. Simply trawling through history to find females (however obscure) that managed to achieve anything does not further the cause in any way, it just highlights the fact that 99% of all invention, scientific/medical discoveries and indeed general greatness were achieved by the male of the species. It is only in the last 40 years or so that females (most of them envious and dissatisfied) have decided they want a piece of the pie. If females were truly as good as males then they would not need to rely on unfair equal opportunities legislation (think unfair promotion in government and big-business etc ). Even with all this now firmly in place men are still vastly more successful than women and this should tell us something. Women still excel in childcare, nursing, homemaking and certain 'hospitality' industries and this should tell us something too.

It's the title 'Girls Are Best' that's so wrong. If it had been called 'Girls Are Quite Good Sometimes in Exceptional Circumstances' then it would have been less controversial and nearer the truth. Imagine the rage of the feminist brigade if anyone dared to write a book called 'Boys are Best' (or even implied it in any way).

It is also very telling that there is no mention of Mrs Thatcher in this book (someone who did indeed achieve greatness on her own merits). Could this be that she didn't subscribe to or have any time for the kind of bra-burning facial-haired feminism that this book is surreptitiously trying to promote.

If you are thinking of buying this book then think again and buy your wives/daughters/nieces etc books on marrying well, motherhood and household management as this will serve them much better in the long run.