Christina Sweeney-Baird - The End of Men

The Borough Press

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2021

Copyright © Christina Sweeney-Baird 2021

Christina Sweeney-Baird asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Jacket design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2021

Jacket design concept by David Litman

Back cover photograph © Nic Skerton/Arcangel Images

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008407926

Ebook Edition © APRIL 2021 ISBN: 9780008407940

Version: 2021-04-10

For my mum, Margarita.

I’m so very glad to be your daughter.

Contents

Cover

Title Page THE END OF MEN Christina Sweeney-Baird

Copyright

Dedication

Author’s Note

Before

Catherine

Outbreak

Amanda

Catherine

Amanda

Lisa

Amanda

Article in The Times of London on 20 November 2025

Catherine

Elizabeth

Panic

Article in the Washington Post on 15 December 2025

Dawn

Clare

Amanda

Catherine

Morven

Catherine

Rosamie

Lisa

Elizabeth

Amanda

Helen

Catherine

Rosamie

Despair

Catherine

Toby Williams

Amanda

The Gynarchy Resistance Blog

Dawn

Article in the Washington Post on 14 March 2026

Catherine

Elizabeth

Lisa

Survival

Morven

Amanda

Elizabeth

Irina

Article in the Washington Post on 30 June 2026

Rachel

Toby Williams

Lisa

Elizabeth

Catherine

Amanda

Faith

Dawn

Frances

Toby

Dawn

Recovery

Lisa

Catherine

Elizabeth

Amanda

Lisa

Catherine

Strength

Helen

Article in the Washington Post on 13 March 2029

Dawn

Elizabeth

Adaptation

Article in the Washington Post on 8 December 2029

Dawn

Catherine

Amanda

Catherine

Jamie

Catherine

Amanda

Rosamie

Elizabeth

Article in the Washington Post on 30 June 2030

Dawn

Catherine

Lisa

Dawn

Remembrance

Catherine

Foreword to ‘Stories of the Great Male Plague’ by Catherine Lawrence

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

I first heard about coronavirus as most people likely did, through snippets of news and emails from friends saying, ‘Have you seen this? So weird!’ For a number of weeks, it felt distant in that way so many foreign news stories do. Something awful and scary but ultimately a disease I would remain personally unaffected by.

Only a few months on from those emails and news reports, I’m sitting in my flat in central London in lockdown. I leave the house once a day for exercise, and shop for food and other essentials once a week. I don’t know when I’ll next see my family, my friends or my colleagues. Billions of people around the world are in the same position. I feel immeasurably fortunate to still be employed and to have recovered from suspected coronavirus (I have not been tested but experienced the virus’s tell-tale cough, breathlessness and extreme fatigue after returning to London from a trip to Northern Italy). I know you’re meant to ‘live your truth’ through art and everything, but contracting coronavirus was a step towards authenticity I could have done without.