Margaret Atwood, the frazzled-haired Canadian author of the blockbuster The Handmaid’s Tale franchise is set to make another fortune in an author tour to her bien-pensant admirers in the Antipodes.

Atwood’s tiresome dystopian “chick lit” theme (it’s Orwell’s 1984 with women rather than men being oppressed by Big Brother) has already earned her a $20 million purse from the Tale’s book, film and TV series rights.

More will follow as night follows day now that the Tale’s speculative political fiction sequel The Testaments was mysteriously released to coincide with her joint win of the prestigious Booker Prize.

Tickets went on sale yesterday for the Melbourne In Conversation with Margaret Atwood “Prayvaganza” (Handmaid acolytes worship service to the author) at Hamer Hall on 23 February 2020 @ $152 for one of the 2,466 seats in the auditorium.

The seven-city, eight worship service Australasian tour starts in Auckland on 11 February and ends in Perth on 1 March 2020.

Ballpark gross revenue figures from eight venues selling 1500 seats @ $100 a ticket would net the Canuck scribe a silk purse of $1.2 million from the Handmaids sow’s ears.

Atwood’s saying that “a word after a word after a word is power” could then be retyped “a word after a word after a word is money.”

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