Margaret Atwood has said the plot of her book The Handmaid’s Tale, which depicts a story of an authoritarian regime where women are forced to reproduce, has become “more and more plausible” in recent years.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Atwood said she believed the plot was “bonkers” when she first had the concept for the novel as the US was the “democratic ideal” at the time.

“It was the land of freedom … and people in Europe just didn’t believe that it could ever go like that,” she said.

Despite this, Atwood added: “I’ve always been somebody who has never believed it can’t happen here. It can happen anywhere, given the circumstances.”

When asked about the book’s endurance, Atwood told the Desert Island Discs host, Lauren Laverne: “Well it’s a perennial possibility, r

See Full Page