It's something of a cliche, isn't it, to talk about our literary heroines as being brave. Fearless. Determined. But it's been a long time since we've come across a protagonist like Elizabeth Zott. An utterly deadpan trailblazer, Elizabeth is punished for the cardinal sin of being herself in the face of society's attempts to turn her into someone else. For being an intelligent and capable woman, and for refusing to accept the professional crumbs that 1950s society deems to be her lot.

Lessons in Chemistry opens in 1961, and casts a brutally honest light on all the indignities and irrationality faced by women of the mid twentieth century. Elizabeth, a research chemist with an exceptional talent, wipes the intellectual floor with the - male and female - misogynists around her. Her battle to achieve professional and scientific equality, and to carve out a place in the world for her family, in the face of sexual assault, casual and cruel discrimination and society's disapproval may be set in the '50s and '60s, but her story of frustration is one that many today will still recognise.

Fired for the dual sins of being a woman who knows her own abilities and becoming pregnant out of wedlock, and subject to sexual harassment because of her single mother status, she is unapologetic to the last. Even nationwide fame and a successful TV show don't dampen her desire to have a moment for herself - a space for herself - or her drive to inspire other women to be who they were always meant to be.

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