An astonishing new work that radically changes how we think about, talk about and understand the vagina – and consequently how we think about women and sexuality – from Naomi Wolf, one of our most respected cultural critics and author of the modern classic, The Beauty Myth.

As Naomi Wolf embarks on a life-changing journey to tease out the link between sexuality and creativity, what she discovers is revelatory and exhilarating – a scientifically supported link between the vagina and female courage, assertiveness and consciousness itself. Emboldened by these new discoveries she looks back in history and show us how the vagina was considered sacred for centuries until it began to be cast as a threat. Even now in an increasingly sexualised world, it is thought of as slightly shameful. Why?

Vagina: A New Biography combines cutting-edge science with cultural history to explore the role of female desire and how it affects female identity, creativity and confidence. Provocative and engaging, positive and inspiring, this book brings to light female impulses, history and dreams – and, in exploring what women really need – it goes to the very core of what it means to be female.

For any woman who wants to understand her body and her mind and the culture that defines her – Vagina is essential reading.