With her Shopaholic series of novels, Sophie Kinsella is the quintessential chick-lit writer. Is she offended by the label? And why does she write about women who are obsessed with handbags?What do we think about chick lit? It's a question that has been on a sort of literary loop for about 15 years. Harmless escapism? Cynical commercialism? Post-feminism at its most depressingly inane? Or is it an insult to the intelligence of women who like to read and write about contemporary female lives? If Jane Austen were alive today, would her books come in pink sparkly covers? If glitter sells, should we even care? Does chick lit propagate a retrograde notion of women as shallow cretins – or reflect their ...