Sandi Toksvig to chair 'can men write women?' debate to expose anatomically impossible writing

From "depressed breasts" to a derrière like "the rumps of mountain sheep", male writers have not always got it quite right when it comes to describing their female protagonists.

A new literary festival is to showcase the excruciating worst of the "truly awful writing about women" to be found in the English language, as it pokes fun at literature's unnerving obsession with the female form.

An event chaired by Sandi Toksvig will be entitled "Her Breasts Preceded Her into the Room" in honour of the "deathless prose" organisers say has been offered by male authors.

The result of a search for the best - and inevitably worst - examples of egregious attempts to capture the thoughts and feelings of female characters, it will see four writers and publishers answer the question "Can men write women?"

Toksvig, the comedian and broadcaster, said she was looking forward to "seeing if we can find the finest example of truly awful writing about women".

“Writing any character can be tricky, but some writers create women who aren’t just unlikely, but anatomically impossible," she said.

The panel will be held at Primadonna, a new festival in Suffolk founded by  17 women who promise it will be neither "anti men" nor "patriarchy bashing".

Its experts include Luke Jennings, the author of the Villanelle novels which were adapted into hit television show Killing Eve, widely acclaimed for its intriguing female protogonists.

He will be joined by Michael Donkor, recently shortlisted for the Desmond Eliot Prize, academic Naomi Paxton, who has a comedy alter ego Ada Campe, and Lisa Milton, HarperCollins’ executive publisher at HQ Stories.

Kit de Waal, the author and a co-founder of the festival, said there were many brilliant examples of classic novels by men which "depict women’s lives in all their complexity and nuance" that show it can be done.

But, she said: "There is no excuse for men to badly write about women’s lives. Most men grow up surrounded by women, work with women, have women in their family, watch women on tv and film (not always a good barometer but still….), read about women and some even have relationships with women.

"Why then should they not be able to depict women as real people with the same hopes, fears, ambitions and desires that men have?

"It could just be that some men are not good writers, full stop."

Promising a "lighthearted look at a serious subject" she added: "We hope it will inspire men to think again about how women appear on the page, particularly when they are alluding to sex."

The panel will have echoes of The Bad Sex Awards, now an annual event in publishing which has seen some of Britain's most famous and successful authors lampooned for their attempts at romantic or erotic prose.

Catherine Mayer, co-founder of the Women's Equality Party and the festival, said much of the conversation would be "tongue-in-cheek", with the panel inspired by a Twitter conversation poking fun at male writer's misconceptions about the female anatomy.

Referring to literature that uses the weather to "reflect and amplify mood", she said: "There's a whole section of male writing where breasts do the same. They droop; they are depressed; they seem to be capable of pointing to things.

"We're not actually saying men can't write women - we have two men on the panel.

"But my point here is the men who write that kind of stuff, they are lacking imagination and possibly talent. We're having some fun about that.

"One of the much more serious points about Primadonna generally is that although women buy more books than men and get more books published than men, they earn less than men, and they're much less likely to be taken seriously."

The Primodonna Festival will be held at Laffitts Hall, Suffolk, from August 30 to September 1.