Catherine Mayer—author, journalist and president of the Women’s Equality Party—talks to Five Books about her optimism for a more equal future for society by way of her favourite science fiction visionaries and their work.

Utopia is out of fashion because efforts to set one up normally end disastrously, says author Ellen Wayland-Smith. And yet, they offer a critique of society that, even today, can’t be ignored. She picks the best books on utopia.

Warnings about the future of society contained in novels such as Nineteen Eighty-Four may seem less important since the fall of the Soviet Union, but they are all too relevant to China today, argues the Chinese writer

One of our myths is the idea of progress – that things always get better. But many human civilisations before ours have risen and then collapsed. We’re no different, says the co-founder of the Dark Mountain project

The Australian economist and author of Zombie Economics says we need to inspire people with a view of a better society. In short, we need a new utopia.

Is it inevitable that the desire to build a perfect world should end in disaster? John Gray considers the flaws in utopian thinking and the essential nature of humans. He recommends the best critiques of utopia and apocalypse.

The tutor of creative writing at London's South Bank University selects what he feels are the best Apocalyptic novels. Includes volumes from Raymond Briggs, Cormac McCarthy and Will Self.