'Fierce, funny and smart' title out next year

Ria Lina has written a book about how  innovative women have been removed from history

 How To Erase A Woman – subtitled ‘the women who did the work. The men who got the credit’ – will republished by  Wildfire  in March next year.

In the book, the comic will examine 15 examples  of 'the Matilda effect’ – the marginalisation of women's achievements  – including Rosalind Franklin, whose work was central to understanding the structure of DNA, or the American artist Margaret Keane, whose work was secretly appropriated by her own husband.

Lina told The Bookseller: ‘Ever since I did Rosalind Franklin as my topic on Celebrity Mastermind I knew I wanted to foreground the stories of women who had suffered similar silencing in the annals of history and to highlight the methods used to erase them. 

‘Sometimes when you're in the fight, you can't speak for yourself, for the sake of your work, your funding, and in some cases, your safety. So it's up to other people to shout about your achievements for you. And that's what I'm doing with this book.’

Editor Lindsay Davies added: ‘This is not just another book celebrating forgotten women from around the world; it's much fiercer, funnier and smarter than that’

How To Erase A Woman is available to pre-order now in hardback, paperback and eBook formats  from Amazon or from uk.bookshop.org, below, which supports independent bookstores. .

Published: 24 Mar 2026