Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy – Ava Pickett’s urgent riposte to toxic masculinity

Since this is portrayed as a civil war, taking place no further afield than Leeds or Preston, it’s not quite clear who the men of Paris’s faction are, nor why Mario and Marcus should have been away for ten whole years. This is nit-picking, though. The broader sweep of Pickett’s writing is bold and strong. “Men do terrible things for no reason all the f*cking time,” the forceful Dani says. Women, as in 1536, cannot necessarily be relied on to be sisterly, or motherly come to that.