Despite last year’s British book sales income being five per cent up from the previous year – the emerging market for books about autism, written by and for autistic people, tends to be overlooked. Mainstream imprints are publishing many more autistic authors as of late, according to Laura James, autistic author of Odd Girl Out.

She said: “There’s a saying in the autism community that goes, ‘if you’ve met one autistic person you’ve, well, met one autistic person.’ It’s so widely used as it’s completely true: each autistic person is as different as each neurotypical person, and that’s why it’s hugely important we have books written by as many autistic adults as possible – so we can see the breadth of experience.”

As a writer with autism myself, here’s my top pick of books on the topic. From memoirs to fiction, these reads were judged based on how easily understood they were by people on the autistic spectrum, as well as how knowledgeable and accepting they were of the condition, I made sure they did not include any ableist content

Read the list here