A Bite of the Apple

by Lennie Goodings

  ‘host of feminist predecessors—feminist radicals . . .’: Barbara Taylor, ‘Making History: The Virago Reprint Library’, A Virago Keepsake to Celebrate Twenty Years of Publishing (London: Virago, 1993). 94

  ‘“People should know,” she said . . .’: Amrit Wilson, Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain (Virago, 1978; Montreal: Daraja Press, 2018). 95

  ‘many white figures of authority . . .’: Ibid. 95

  ‘For the first time, here was a book . . .’: Quoted in ibid. 95

  ‘shameless immorality’: Quoted in ‘Afterword by the German’ Editor, A Woman in Berlin (London: Virago, 2005). 96

  ‘We often feel that we are unfitted by our education . . .’: Dorothy Thompson (ed.), Over Our Dead Bodies: Women Against the Bomb (London: Virago, 1983). 98

  ‘I think one of the reasons why I was never properly domesticated . . .’: In Jackie Bennett and Rosemary Forgan (ed.), There’s Something About a Convent Girl (London: Virago, 1991). 99

  ‘Young feminists—whether you call yourself one . . .’ Amy Annette, Martha Mosse, and Alice Stride, ‘Introduction’, in Victoria Pepe, Rachel Holmes, Amy Annette, Alice Stride, and Martha Mosse (eds), I Call Myself a Feminist (London: Virago, 2015). 103

  Chapter SIX

  ‘A country needs to hear its own voice’: Margaret Atwood, Suvival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (Toronto: House of Anansi, 1972). 105

  In the early 1970s: John Bowman, ‘Fill in the blank: As Canadian as ____’, CBC News YourCommunity Blog, 7 June 2013, https://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/06/as-canadian-as.html. 106

  ‘someone with a logical reason to think he may be one’: Mavis Gallant, Home Truths (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1981). 106

  ‘Virago felt like home to me . . .’: Margaret Atwood, ‘Dump Bins and Shelf Strips’, A Virago Keepsake to Celebrate Twenty Years of Publishing (London: Virago, 1993). 106

  ‘When times are tough . . .’: Margaret Atwood, ‘Witches’, in Second Words: Selected Critical Prose (Toronto: House of Anansi, 1982). 109

  ‘Why do men feel threatened by women? . . .’: Margaret Atwood, ‘Writing the male character’, in Second Words. 109

  ‘Murderess. It rustles, like a taffeta skirt across the floor’: Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (1996; London: Virago, 1997). 110

  ‘The writer retains three attributes . . .’: Atwood, ‘Writing the male character’. 112

  ‘The research into courtesans, convents, women . . .’: Sarah Dunant, ‘Sarah Dunant: “The answers history gives us depend on the questions we ask it”’, Guardian, 29 July 2017. 113

  ‘One of feminism’s great achievements . . .’: Ibid. 114

  ‘art is the nearest thing to life . . .’: George Eliot, ‘The natural history of German life’, Westminster Review, XIX (July 1856). 114

  ‘imagining—generously—life that is not your life’: From interview with Neel Mukherjee, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 20 October 2018. 115

  ‘culture and education are basically . . .’: Ibid. 116

  ‘we have learned what looks like learning’: Ibid. 116

  ‘She stimulates the mind and satisfies the heart’: Sue Wilson, Scotland on Sunday. 116

  ‘The very patchiness of lesbian history . . .’: ‘Afterword’, Tipping the Velvet: 20th Anniversary Edition (London: Virago, 2018). 118

  ‘To me, lesbian stories are the norm, not the aberration’: Sarah Waters, email response to reader via Virago inbox. 118

  ‘Storytelling makes us human’: Virago podcast, 26 February 2018. 118

  ‘Such a brilliant writer . . .’: A. N. Wilson, Daily Mail. 118

  Part Three

  ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’: Emily Dickinson, ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’, from Ralph W. Franklin (ed.), The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998). 119

  Chapter SEVEN

  ‘You have to realize we were like family’: Virago: Changing the World One Page at a Time, BBC Four, 31 October 2016. 122

  ‘Whatever happened, no one ever wishes they hadn’t worked there’: Conversation with the author. 122

  ‘By the end of 1986 the group situation was grave . . .’: Ursula Owen, ‘Feminist Publishing’, in Peter Owen (ed.), Publishing: The Future (London: Peter Owen, 1988). 126

  ‘The author Graham Greene . . .’: Edwin McDowell, ‘Random House to buy British group’, New York Times, 8 May 1997. 127

  ‘The book is never just about the text . . .’: Conversation with the author. 130

  Chapter EIGHT

  ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’: Emily Dickinson, ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’, from Ralph W. Franklin (ed.), The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998). 133

  ‘In the mid-80s, I was once invited . . .’: Zoe Fairbairns, ‘Feminist publishing—then, now and in the future’, talk at Nottingham Mechanics, 22 April 2017. 134

  ‘It is indicative of the power of the movement . . .’: Feminist Book Fair press release. 135

  ‘I will never forget the sheer ebullience . . .’: ‘Writing women’, in Ritu Menon (ed.), Making a Difference: Memoirs of the Women’s Movement in India (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2011). 137

  ‘it was about the people who read books . . .’: Fairbairns, ‘Feminist publishing’. 137

  ‘I remember the booksellers who became . . .’: Email to the author. 138

  ‘If you went looking for the Women’s Liberation Movement . . .’: Lynn Alderson, ‘Sisterwrite bookshop’, Lesbian History Group website, 8 December 2016, https://lesbianhistorygroup.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/sisterwrite-bookshop-lynn-alderson/. 139

  ‘a monstrosity of racism’: Pratibha Parman and Jackie Kay, ‘Frontiers’, in Joan Wylie Hall (ed.), Conversations with Audre Lorde (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004). 140

  ‘In those early days of the black feminist movement . . .’: Jackie Kay, ‘Feminist, lesbian, warrior, poet: rediscovering the work of Audre Lorde’, New Statesman, 30 September 2017. 141

  ‘There was a fervour that greeted Audre . . .’: Ibid. 141

  ‘My mission in life is not merely to survive . . .’: Maya Angelou, Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wit and Wisdom of Maya Angelou (London: Virago, 2014). 142

  ‘the rhythms and imagery of the good . . .’: Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969; London: Virago, 1984). 143

  ‘I speak to the black experience . . .’: Virago poster. 143

  ‘Sister, Mama loves to see you read . . .’: Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. 143

  ‘She opened the first page . . .’: Ibid. 143

  ‘You may not control all the events . . .’: Angelou, Rainbow in the Cloud. 146

  ‘History, despite its wrenching pain . . .’: Ibid. 146

  a sweet letter from August 1987: Reproduced with the permission of the Estate of Maya Angelou. 149

  ‘I envision Maya as a kind of General of Compassion . . .’: Alice Walker, ‘Maya Angelou was more beautiful than she realised’, Guardian, 29 May 2014. 150

  ‘clever and sassy’: Quoted in Lauren Gambino, ‘Obama: Maya Angelou’s words “carried a little black girl to the White House”’, Guardian, 7 June 2014. 150

  ‘describes Black women’s celebration of their culture . . .’: Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie, and Suzanne Scafe, The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain (London: Virago, 1985). 152

  ‘You know you can only ask that question . . .’: Elissa Schappell with Claudia Brodsky Lacour, ‘Toni Morrison, The art of fiction No. 134’, Paris Review, 128 (fall 1993). 152

  ‘I remember the day Salman Rushdie was described . . .’: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Who Do We Think We Are? Imagining the New Britain (London
: Allen Lane, 2000). 152

  ‘It’s not patronage, not affirmative action . . .’: Schappell and Lacour, ‘Toni Morrison’. 154

  ‘the desire for a multi-cultural list does not . . .’: Margaret Busby and Lennie Goodings, The Bookseller, 23 September 1988. 154

  ‘publishers want to make money . . .’: Marsha Hunt, ‘Saga that led to a miracle’, Herald, 8 August 1995. 155

  ‘the distance between the self . . .’: Patricia J Williams, Seeing A Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race. The Reith Lectures (London: Virago, 1997) 156

  ‘We don’t want to be saved by Western feminists . . .’: Masih Alinjed, BBC News, 22 September 2018. 156

  ‘things don’t have to be the way things are . . .’: Joanna Bourke, Feminist Book Fair 2018. 157

  ‘The feminist pundit class is not attuned to race and class’: Lola Olufemi, ibid. 157

  Chapter NINE

  ‘I set out in a very tepid, tentative sort of way . . .’: Rob Nixon, ‘An interview with Pat Barker’, Contemporary Literature, 45:1 (spring 2004). 164

  ‘Regional, working-class voices are very, very marginalized . . .’: Ibid. 165

  ‘All those bloody dons sitting around . . .’: Ibid. 166

  ‘I felt I had got myself into a box . . .’: Ibid. 166

  ‘I am just finishing this for the girls’: Quoted in publisher’s preface to Angela Carter (ed.), The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales (London: Virago, 1992). 167

  ‘She gave of herself—her ideas . . .’: Marina Warner, ‘Introduction’, ibid. 167

  ‘seems to show grand narratives being prised open . . .’: ‘Afterword’, Tipping the Velvet: 20th Anniversary Edition (London: Virago, 2018). 169

  ‘There’s an idea that there’s this great mainstream . . .’: Jonathan Dee, Barbara Jones, and Larissa MacFarquhar, ‘Grace Paley, The art of fiction No. 131’, Paris Review, 124 (fall 1992). 170

  ‘I have always believed in a way . . .’: Rachel Cooke, ‘Maggie Nelson: “There is no catharsis . . . the stories we tell ourselves don’t heal us”’, Observer, 21 May 2017. 171

  ‘Acceptance of the “given-ness” of the marketplace . . .’: ‘For a heroic writers movement’, in Toni Morrison, What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008). 171

  Chapter TEN

  ‘Promotional paraphernalia from balloons to bookmarks . . .’: Catherine Lockerbie, ‘Taming of the shrewd behind a write-on success’, The Scotsman, 18 June 1993. 173

  ‘Today women reign over Random House . . .’: Catherine Bennett, Guardian, June 1993. 174

  ‘Virago has become a victim of its own success . . .’: E. Jane Dickson, ‘A woman’s place is on the shelf’, Daily Telegraph, 15 June 1993. 174

  ‘Virago is the feminist movement in microcosm . . .’: Natasha Walter, ‘Still maligned, still loved, still needed’, Independent, 19 June 1993. 174

  ‘Call me old-fashioned but . . .’: Lennie Goodings, ‘Call me old-fashioned, but that advertisement’s sexist’, Independent, 20 June 1993. 175

  ‘things had changed a great deal over that time . . .’: Lynn Alderson, ‘Sisterwrite bookshop’, Lesbian History Group website, 8 December 2016, https://lesbianhistorygroup.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/sisterwrite-bookshop-lynn-alderson/. 178

  ‘They decided to take on the supermarkets and Smith’s . . .’: Quoted in Stuart Jeffries, ‘How Waterstone’s killed bookselling’, Guardian, 10 November 2009. 179

  ‘You cut Waterstones out, and . . .’: Quoted in Stephen Hyman, ‘Big-box stores don’t have to die’, Slate, 15 December 2015. 180

  ‘In my experience, the smaller the cheese . . .’: Virago: Changing the World One Page at a Time, BBC Four, 31 October 2016. 181

  ‘The setback raises questions about the future health . . .’: Stephen Ward, ‘Virago’s book list is trimmed as sales drop’, Independent on Sunday, 5 June 1994. 181

  We are a literary and political publishing house . . .: Quoted in ibid. 182

  ‘In challenging times you have to focus . . .’: Bookseller, 17 February 1995. 183

  ‘I wanted Lennie to have Virago’: Virago: Changing the World One Page at a Time. 184

  ‘Reports of the death of feminism . . .’: Jan Dalley, ‘Was Virago too successful?’, Independent on Sunday, 29 October 1995. 184

  ‘The Virago list is close to my heart . . .’: Little, Brown press release, 2 November 1995. 186

  ‘Talk to any of her authors . . .’: Mark Bostridge, ‘The apple bites back’, Independent on Sunday, 18 May 2003. 193

  ‘Back to Soho’s seedier . . .’: with kind permission of Margaret Atwood. 194

  Chapter ELEVEN

  ‘It’s a particular pleasure to honour . . .’: WH Smith Literary Award brochure. 199

  ‘within the relationship if there is some trust . . .’: Elissa Schappell with Claudia Brodsky Lacour, ‘Toni Morrison, The art of fiction No. 134’, Paris Review, 128 (fall 1993). 202

  ‘There’s a point where the novel . . .’: Email to the author. 203

  ‘When someone feels they must tell you . . .’: Maya Angelou, Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wit and Wisdom of Maya Angelou (London: Virago, 2014). 206

  ‘from the curl all of the way to a full-fledged person’: Schappell and Lacour, ‘Toni Morrison’. 210

  ‘I know that not since the days of my childhood . . .’: James Baldwin, quoted in Don Nardo, Maya Angelou: Poet, Performer, Activist (Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2009). 210

  ‘is the proper aim of art’: ‘The decay of lying—an observation’, in Oscar Wilde, Intentions (1891). 211

  ‘They make use of their . . .’: Nina Bawden, ‘Coded Autobiography’, A Virago Keepsake to Celebrate Twenty Years of Publishing (London: Virago, 1993). 211

  ‘I wanted to counter the image of her as veering . . .’: Email to the author. 212

  ‘seemed to miraculously transform the harsher truths . . .’: Susie Boyt, My Judy Garland Life (London: Virago, 2008). 215

  she couldn’t get the same money: Edmund Gordon, The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography (London: Chatto & Windus, 2016). 218

  ‘Poetry has never let me down . . .’: Josephine Hart, Catching Life by the Throat: How to Read Poetry and Why (London: Virago, 2006). 219

  ‘Your thorns are the best part of you’: Marianne Moore, ‘Roses Only’. 219

  Chapter TWELVE

  ‘I realised that in every generation . . .’: Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth (1991; London: Penguin, 2015). 225

  ‘excessive attachment to a politically correct idealism’: Natasha Walter, The New Feminism (London: Virago, 1999). 225

  ‘At her spirited best, she is a symbol . . .’: Elaine Showalter, Guardian. 227

  ‘Better than a dose of Paglia any day’: Marie Claire (February 1999). 227

  We live in a time when the very fundaments . . .: Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (1991; New York: Broadway Books, 2006). 227

  I once believed that we only had to put in place . . .: Natasha Walter, Living Dolls (London: Virago, 2010). 229

  ‘I see a renewed energy around publishing . . .’: Interview with the author. 231

  ‘The aspirational mantra of inclusivity and diversity . . .’: Margaret Busby, ‘From Ayòbámi Adébáyò to Zadie Smith: meet the New Daughters of Africa’, Guardian, 9 March 2019. 231

  Proper, dedicated, lived and breathed fuck-the-patriarchy feminism . . .: Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist: From Our Noble Goals to Our Worst Hypocrises (London: Virago, 2018). 232

  ‘I like the adaptation of Flavia Dzodan’s quote . . .’: Conversation with the author. 233

  ‘I agree wholeheartedly . . .’: ‘Introduction’, June Eric-Udorie (ed.), Can We All Be F
eminists? (London: Virago, 2018). 233

  ‘Feminism also gave me permission . . .’: Ibid. 233

  ‘In a world where language and naming are power . . .’: ‘Conditions for work: the common world of women’, in Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets and Silence (London: Virago, 1980). 234

  Chapter THIRTEEN

  ‘I did not want to be published by [Virago] . . .’: Susha Guppy, ‘Marguerite Yourcenar, The art of fiction No. 103’, Paris Review, 106 (spring 1988). 235

  ‘Women hid in order to be seen’: Jonathan Dee, Barbara Jones, and Larissa MacFarquhar, ‘Grace Paley, The art of fiction No. 131’, Paris Review, 124 (fall 1992). 237

  ‘The woman who writes is a writer . . .’: Joyce Carol Oates, (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities (New York: Dutton, 1988). 237

  ‘where you are likely to see gender bias, bias of all kinds’: Mary Morris, ‘Margaret Atwood, The art of fiction No. 121’, Paris Review, 117 (winter 1990). 238

  ‘a non-profit feminist organization committed . . .’: https://www.vidaweb.org/about-vida/. 238

  ‘Literature with a capital L . . .’: Quoted in Danuta Kean, ‘Are you serious? The Emilia report into the gender gap for authors’, March 2019. 238

  Having been right about the English literature of . . .: Robert McCrum, ‘The Man Booker at 50: flawed—but still the best way to judge our literature’, Observer, 1 July 2018. 240

  It is tempting [. . . to conclude] that men and women . . .: Anne Enright, ‘Diary’, London Review of Books, 39:18 (21 September 2017). 241

  ‘I’ve been publishing novels for almost 20 years . . .’: John Boyne, ‘“Women are better writers than men”: novelist John Boyne sets the record straight’, Guardian, 12 December 2017. 242

  ‘Calling a work of fiction domestic . . .’: Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 23 November 2015. 243