Caitlin Moran, the widely-celebrated feminist author and columnist, has called for girls to avoid reading any books with male authors until they are grown women.

Moran, a Times of London columnist behind the best-selling How to Be a Woman, argued that reading great works by males will make young women cripplingly insecure.

She named J. D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway and Philip Roth as male writers particularly worthy of being ignored.

In an International Women's Day article written for the publishing house Penguin – who sell an awful lot of books by male authors – she said: "If I had one piece of advice for young girls, and women, it would be this: girls, don't read any books by men.