Because Booker Prize-winning author Sebastian Faulks was criticised for the way he describes female characters in his book Paris Echo, he’s never again going to write descriptions of female characters in future books.

Whether it’s right and fair he should have made such a radical decision is something you’d have to ask him.  Unfortunately, he’s busy right now writing his next book, featuring description-free characters.

Authors don’t have to cross every ‘T’ and dot every ‘I’ when describing female or male characters, or the houses they live in and the cars they drive.
The very best authors allow us the freedom to use our imaginations.

However, for readers to really get involved in a story, it’s helpful if a character is provided with a basic description, even if it’s only their hair colour or whether they’re tall or short; fat or thin; attractive-looking or grim-faced, grey-bearded and grumpy.

In his classic 1940 thriller Farewell My Lovely, Raymond Chandler provided what’s arguably the best example of how to perfectly describe a female character without listing her attributes.  “She was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window”.

Now that, my friend, is proper writing!