In an announcement that caused his website to crash, author Iain [M] Banks yesterday shared the devastating news that he has late stage gall bladder cancer, and may only have months to live. Squeamish Louise and Gareth pay tribute to the work of an extraordinary writer...

The announcement was beautifully written - emotive, with a strand of dark humour. Of course it was. But it was impossible to read without an almost physical reaction of sadness. Banks has written 26 novels - 14 as Iain Banks and a further 12 as Iain M Banks. But when he dies we'll be losing more than just a prolific author.

Porn. It’s the big subject Western feminists have, depending on your stance, the luxury to bicker over or the calling to destroy all forms of it. Recently there has been a lot of concern that young people’s first exposure to sex is porn, which they use in lieu of proper sex education at school or from their parents. It’s possible this causes huge misunderstanding about bodies and creates…expectations. It’s been blamed for sexting (I blame phones) among teens and causing greater anxiety over body issues. Many people find it just plain offensive.

Maybe we would all like some good porn related news. Yeah? Yeah. According to a study at Indiana University watching porn (any porn) makes heterosexual men more tolerant of the idea of equal marriage. If you don’t think that is good news, perhaps you should go watch a little porn. Right now. You’re online, it’s pretty hard to avoid. I’ll wait.

WOMEN! Are you a woman? Then you absolutely must have a smear test at the age of 20! It's a matter of life or death! No, actually 25. But it's still a matter of life or death! Glad that's over? Oh you have to have that every couple of years. Also you're hurtling towards a very necessary/unnecessary breast exam, do you check your breasts? Right, you must check them, you can do it anywhere. At the bus stop, at the till, doing the school run, nobody will notice. Oh no wait that's kegels. Do not check your breasts anywhere. Do your kegels like you've got a ping pong tournament approaching and check your breasts in a private moment.

As women get older we all know they begin to fall apart. This can be due to excess bloating, migraines, crow's feet, cellulite, excess bikini line hair and shameful constipation that results in flat hair. Also flat hair. As if those afflictions weren't enough there is also the possibility of cervical cancer and breast cancer to contend with.

Today is the first ever United Nations International Day of the Girl Child (The term 'Girl Child' here is used to highlight the particular struggles young women and girls under 18) . Today's International Day of the Girl was lobbied for by the people behind the Because I am a Girl...campaign Plan UK in order to have a “day in recognition of girls' rights and accomplishments”.

Plan UK hope, through new awareness, to generate more signatures for their petition to put pressure on UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to “lead action by world leaders to make girls' education a priority.”

Global statistics show that 1 in 3 girls are denied a secondary education due to poverty, discrimination and violence. If that doesn't convince you to add your signature how about the statistic that every 3 seconds a girl is coaxed, coerced or forced into a marriage? 

It has been announced today that the definition of domestic abuse will be changed in March 2013 to include the term 'coercive control'. The addition means a pattern of behaviour that is psychologically, emotionally, socially or financially controlling can be considered as a form of domestic abuse. 

This will be added to the 2004 definition of domestic abuse: "any incident of threatening behaviour, or abuse between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality"

As the cabinet reshuffle took place today, I was surrounded – physically and digitally – with people dissecting the moves. Hey, these people are running the country. They deserve our scrutiny, if not our respect. So what does the picture look like now?

It's easy to look at a reshuffle as a rearrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic (a metaphor I'll be glad if I never have to read again, particularly in the BBC's comments section), but there are always reasons behind these moves.

It's Monday, let's start the week with some positive news.

Conviction rates for domestic violence cases has risen from 69% in 2007-8 to 73% according to reports from the Crown Prosecution Service. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 today director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer, who implemented a 4 year strategy, said they were taking “steps on a long journey”. It is important to note, as Starmer has, that while this is important progress it is just that: progress. On average a woman will experience domestic violence a total of 30 times before she will report it, the statistics we have on domestic abuse are no doubt inaccurate because so many cases go unreported and unacknowledged.

As part of the 4 year strategy concerning violence against women and girls Starmer has identified, with the help of women's groups and charities such as Refuge, the problem of reporting cases. In another interview with the BBC "There is still a significant problem in terms of encouraging people to come forward." Starmer acknowledged that there are some women who have reported DV in the past only for the case to be dropped, making the idea of reporting seem futile. 

It has always been my suspicion that IQ might be up there with BMI in questionableness. I am saying this as someone who (according to their mother) got a very high IQ score (she can't remember the exact score “but it was just below genius, no it was GENIUS”) and has a low BMI (according to the BBC I have the body of a woman from the Philippines). At least if BMI doubters turn out to be wrong the question of losing or gaining weight is, though difficult, doable. IQ is another matter, which perhaps contributes to its debatable status.

The fact our collective Intelligenz-Quotient is apparently on the rise according to the Flynn Effect is argument enough against the validity of IQ standardised testing (or perhaps the questions and puzzles are piss easy now, not like in my day...). “In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster” said IQ expert Professor James Flynn. “This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ.”

Brits fond of muttering darkly about their country will quickly alight upon the subject of teen pregnancy, at which we excel in Europe (although it’s worth mentioning the UK teen pregnancy rate is at its lowest since the 1960s…so go UK teens!). Depending on their political bent a theory concerning council housing will quickly follow or perhaps fretting about teen girl’s self-worth or sex education. A subject that is rarely brought up in conjunction with teen pregnancy debates is death. Nor, for that matter, are fistulas, incontinence or ruptures mentioned in teen pregnancy discussions. When it comes to health complications brought on by pregnancy a pregnant teen in Britain could be forgiven for thinking this begins and ends with the much feared bucket vagina. 

Since Bpas announced a Morning After Pill postal service (in which the pill was posted, the postal service was not run by the Morning After Pill – it just feels that way sometimes)   over the Christmas season the scheme has been awarded the Adult Sexual Health Project of the year at the first UK Sexual Health Awards.

“The judges commended the scheme for its innovative approach to delivery and were impressed by the widespread take-up by women of the service.” 

Over 1000 women used the service over the 4 week pilot and Bpas is now planning on continuing the scheme.