The author behind the book and cult TV series The Handmaid’s Tale says its long-awaited sequel was prompted by a deterioration of women’s rights in some parts of the world. Bonnet-clad handmaids wandered through London on Tuesday (September 10) night to mark the book release. The works are set in a dystopian future where most women have become infertile. The few that can have kids? Forced by a theocracy into sexual slavery — the so-called “handmaids.