Turkey's most celebrated woman novelist goes on trial today charged with "insulting Turkishness", as the government refuses to bow to domestic and international pressure to abolish the law that allows writers to be prosecuted.

Elif Shafak, whose bestselling novels often challenge the humourlessness of official Turkish attitudes to history, politics and culture, is the latest writer to be prosecuted in cases brought by a nationalist lawyers' group that has become obsessed with silencing liberals and intellectuals.