Why are middle-aged women invisible on book covers? | Alison Flood | Books | The Guardian

My own hunt - as yet unsuccessful - was prompted by the actor and novelist Barbara Ewing, whose novel about a drama-school reunion, The Actresses, has just been reissued. Ewing says she cried when she first saw the cover of the 1997 edition - although it focuses on women over 50, the jacket image was a close up of a young woman's face. This time around, she and publisher Head of Zeus have gone for an elegant photograph of a silver-haired woman that measures up perfectly to the book's protagonists. But Ewing says bookshops aren't interested.