Pan Macmillan acquires Gina Rippon’s ‘pioneering’ account of autism in women and girls at auction

Pan Macmillan has acquired Gina Rippon’s “pioneering” account of autism in women and girls at auction. Mike Harpley, publisher in Pan Non-fiction, has acquired UKBC rights at auction to neuroscientist Rippon’s The Lost Girls of Autism: How Science Failed Autistic Women – and the New Research That’s Changing the Story from Kate Barker at Kate Barker Literary. Pan Macmillan will publish the book in its Macmillan imprint in hardback, e-book and audio on 3rd April 2025.

In the new book, renowned brain scientist and author Gina Rippon delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored and misunderstood for so long.

Harpley said: “I have learnt a huge amount working on Gina’s incredible book, and it vividly raises awareness of a profound injustice in the way science, medicine and society treat women and girls with autism. I hope that this book will help start new conversations and spearhead a campaign for the situation to be redressed.”

Rippon, emeritus professor of cognitive neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre, Birmingham, said: “The Lost Girls of Autism aims to smash the stereotype of autism as a condition that mainly affects males. This belief has cast a long shadow over every stage of the autism story, with autistic women overlooked and ignored. I explore the history and science behind this male spotlight problem, and show how we can begin to get an unbiased view.”