A Bite of the Apple

by Lennie Goodings

  ‘wave of essentialism once more sweeping the women’s world’: ‘From the Editors’, in Lisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes, and Susie Orbach (eds), Fifty Shades of Feminism (London: Virago, 2013). 244

  ‘We, all of us, women and men . . .’: Siri Hustvedt, ‘Underground sexism: what was that you just said?’, in ibid. 244

  ‘A male novelist hardens and dignifies the form . . .’: Aaron Hickling, ‘Siri Hustvedt: I’m writing for my life’, Observer, 3 March 2019. 244

  ‘the woman writer still risks’: Rachel Cusk, ‘Shakespeare’s daughters’, Guardian, 12 December 2009. 244

  ‘Male readers . . . rarely use the compliment . . .’: Sarah Churchwell, ‘Pushing back: why it’s time for women to rewrite the story’, Guardian, 17 February 2018. 245

  ‘There is a difference between a culture . . .’: Enright, ‘Diary’. 246

  ‘Women have been too dignified and self-effacing . . .’: Elaine Showalter, ‘The female frontier’, Guardian, 9 May 2009. 246

  ‘Great-novel writing is regarded as a pursuit . . .’: Bryan Appleyard, ‘Twilight of the greats?’, Sunday Times, 30 December 2007. 247

  ‘I want to work hard and know that my work . . .’: Naomi Alderman, ‘Wild West Video’, in Appignanesi, Holmes, and Orbach (eds), Fifty Shades of Feminism. 248

  Chapter FOURTEEN

  ‘It wasn’t just the language of Leaves of Grass . . .’: Naomi Wolf, Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalisation of Love (London: Virago, 2019). 250

  ‘in part an act of submission, akin to generosity or love’: Quoted in Brigitta Olubas, ‘Remembering Shirley Hazzard: “art is the only afterlife of which we have evidence”’, http://theconversation.com/remembering-shirley-hazzard-art-is-the-only-afterlife-of-which-we-have-evidence-70519, 16 December 2016. 250

  ‘Our world that seems charged with war . . .’: Acceptance speech, Miles Franklin Award, 2004. 251

  ‘I happen to believe that at its best writing . . .’: Margaret Atwood, ‘An end to an audience?’, public lecture, Dalhousie University, part of the Dorothy J. Killam Lecture Series, 8 October 1980. Reprinted in Second Words: Selected Critical Prose (Toronto: House of Anansi, 1982). 252

  ‘We write best when we write about . . .’: Sarah Waters, email response to reader via Virago inbox. 254

  ‘To be human is a very high and complicated privilege’: ‘Marilynne Robinson webchat – your questions answered on Gilead, Trump and the joys of quiet’, Guardian Books blog, 26 January 2018. 254

  ‘Conviction as to the importance of what one . . .’: Tillie Olsen, Silences (London: Virago, 1980). 257

  ‘The question is not who influences you . . .’: Mona Simpson, ‘Hilary Mantel, The art of fiction No. 226’, Paris Review, 212 (spring 2015). 257

  ‘I think we’re genetically programmed to tell stories . . .’: Virago podcast, 26 February 2018. 259

  Index

  5 Wardour Street ix, 6, 25, 33, 123

  41 William IV Street 123

  Aaron, Hank 148

  Abacus 155, 188

  Abbey, Sally 117, 189, 190, 191

  Adams, Ruth I’m Not Complaining 79

  Adebayo, Diran 157 Some Kind of Black 155

  Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozie 153

  After Noon Plus (Thames Television) 145

  Ahmed, Ailah 112–13, 189, 233

  Aiken, Joan 89

  Akira Press 154

  Alderman, Naomi 248 The Power 248

  Alderson, Lynn, Sisterwrite 64, 74, 76, 78, 139, 178

  Alexander, Sally 27, 43 Becoming a Woman: And Other Essays in 19th and 20th Century Feminist History 94

  Her Infinite Variety 173

  Ali, Monica 153

  Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin 152

  Alinejad, Masih The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran 156

  Allen & Unwin 136

  Allison and Busby 154

  Alther, Lisa 136

  Amazones d’Hier 11

  Amis, Kingsley 48

  Anansi, House of, Toronto 25, 106

  Anarchist Feminists 136

  André Deutsch 12, 81

  Angelou, Maya 52, 65, 102, 126, 139, 142–51, 188, 189, 206 ‘And Still I Rise’ 102

  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 14, 142, 143, 144, 151, 210

  Annette, Amy 103, 149, 162

  Annette, John 58, 78

  Annette, Zak 148, 199

  Annis, Francesca 173

  Anonymous A Woman in Berlin 96

  Appignanesi, Lisa 30, 32, 241 Fifty Shades of Feminism (ed.) 244

  Mad, Bad and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors 100

  Appignanesi, Richard 30

  Appleyard, Bryan 247

  Arawadi 154

  Arcadia 32

  Arsenal Women’s Group 20

  Arvon Foundation 164

  Athill, Diana 81

  Attallah, Naim 64

  Atwood, Margaret 65, 72, 83, 105–12, 126, 153, 181, 188, 189, 191, 208, 225, 238, 252–3, 256 on Adrienne Rich 54–5

  Alias Grace 110, 111, 189

  The Blind Assassin 110, 189

  Bluebeard’s Egg 111

  and Canada 4, 105, 107

  Cat’s Eye 109, 111

  The Circle Game 105

  The Edible Woman 14, 106, 107

  The Handmaid’s Tale 109, 111, 170, 223

  The Testaments 109, 111

  Lady Oracle 107

  Maddadam 204–6

  ‘On Virago’s 30th Birthday’ 194–5

  Oryx and Crake 110, 113, 204

  The Robber Bride 109–10

  Surfacing 75, 107

  Survival 105

  ‘The Whirlpool Rapids’ 111

  Austen, Jane 71

  Australian Classics 83

  Badran, Margot and Miriam Cooke (eds) Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Women’s Writing 101

  Bailey, Paul 76

  Bainbridge, Beryl 240, 252, 257

  Baker, Dorothy Cassandra at the Wedding 77

  Bakewell, Joan 10, 209

  Baldwin, James 145, 151, 210

  Bambara, Toni Cade 137

  Bamford, David 189

  Banyard, Kat The Equality Illusion: The Truth about Men and Women Today 230

  Barker, Pat 134, 136, 161, 164–6 The Ghost Road 166

  Union Street 164, 166

  Barnes, Djuna 84, 257

  Barnes, Julian 242

  Battle Axe 136

  Bawden, Nina 86, 89, 112, 191, 208, 211

  Baxter, Sarah 148

  BBC TV Virago documentary 122

  Beauman, Nicola A Very Great Profession: The Women’s Novel 1914–39 79

  Beauman, Sally 76

  Bedford, Sybille 76

  Beevor, Antony 96

  Beginners’ Guides 30

  Behn, Aphra 94

  Bell, Florence At the Works 26–7

  Belle, Jennifer Going Down 191

  Belott, Elena Little Girls 31

  Benjamin, Jessica 100

  Bennett, Catherine 174

  Bennett, Jackie (ed) There’s Something About a Convent Girl 99

  Berger, John 33 Pig Earth 31

  Ways of Seeing 31

  Berryman, Tamsyn 187

  Best of British 153

  Best of Young British Novelists 134

  Best of Young British Writers 153

  Beswick, Richard 188

  Bevan, Aneurin 165

  Black Ink 154

  Black Lesbian Group (BLG) 141

  Black Womantalk 154

  Black Women Talk 136

  Blackwell’s 136, 138

  Blake, William 258

  Bloodaxe Books 136

  Bloomsbury 107, 110, 130, 184–6

  Bogle-L’Ouverture 154

  Book Action for Nuclear Disarmament 138

  Book Marketing Council 81, 134

  Book Trust 155

  Booker Prize 110, 153, 166, 199, 225, 237, 239–40, 255

  Bookma
rks 136

  Bookplus 136

  Boothe, John 12, 41–2

  Borogrove Bookshop, Victoria, British Columbia 16

  Bostridge, Mark 28, 193–4

  Bourke, Joanna Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present 156–7

  Bowen, Elizabeth 83, 257

  Boycott, Rosie 12, 13, 15, 17

  Boyne, John 242

  Boyt, Susie 215 My Judy Garland Life 215

  Braddon, Mary E. 84

  Brandenberg, Gert 137

  Breeze, Jean Binta 151

  Brettenham House, Lancaster Place 187

  Brighton Women and Science Group (ed.) Alice through the Microscope 92

  Brilliance 136

  Bristol Women’s Studies Group 92

  British Book Awards 215

  Brittain, Vera 93, 255 Testament of Youth 27, 43

  Brontë sisters 160

  Brookner, Anita 76, 78

  Broughton, Rhoda 84

  Bryan, Beverley; Dadzie, Stella; Scafe, Suzanne The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain 152

  Brownmiller, Susan Against our Will: Men, Women and Rape 14, 62

  Buford, Bill 134

  Burgess, Anthony 86, 243

  Busby, Margaret 154, 155 Daughters of Africa (ed.) 231

  The New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent (ed.) 231

  Butalia, Urvashi 136, 137

  Butler, Judith 222

  Butterworth, Sue 139

  Byatt, A. S. 76, 77, 236

  Calder, Liz 43, 107, 110, 130, 184–5

  Callil, Carmen 193, 260, 261 Bad Faith 249

  Chair 124, 126, 180, 182–3

  and Chatto & Windus 80, 121, 123, 184, 224

  at CVBC 123, 124, 126, 142, 164, 180

  Managing Director ix, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 17–19, 24–5, 27–9, 33–6, 38–9, 40, 41–2, 43–4, 49, 87–8, 217–18

  and publicity 130

  and Quartet 12–13, 24

  resignation 183–4, 186

  and Rothschilds 127, 128

  Virago Modern Classics 70, 74–6, 77, 78–9, 87, 107

  see also Carmen Callil Publicity Ltd

  Cambridge Women’s Liberation Newsletter 11

  Cambridge Women’s Studies Group 92

  Campbell, Beatrix 43, 53–4, 223 Wigan Pier Revisited 59–60

  Campbell, Cheryl 27

  Canada x, 11, 16, 25, 105–6, 107 Human Rights Act (1977) 29

  Carcanet 183

  Carey, John 200

  Carmen Callil Publicity Ltd 12, 17, 23

  Carpentier, Alejo 31

  Carswell, Catherine 83

  Carter, Angela 1, 21, 25, 43, 73, 98, 161–5, 166–8, 239 Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales 167

  The First Virago Book of Fairy Tales 167

  The Magic Toyshop 72, 161

  Nights at the Circus 240

  Nothing Sacred 162

  Perrault’s Fairy Tales 167

  The Sadeian Woman 161, 218

  The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales 167

  Cather, Willa 73, 76, 77, 84, 85, 257

  Centerprise Bookshop, Hackney, London 30, 136

  Central Books 136

  Chamberlain, Mary Fenwomen 23

  Change 136

  Chatto, Bodley Head and Jonathan Cape Ltd. (CBC) 121, 123

  Chatto, Virago, Bodley Head and Cape (CVBC) 123–5, 126, 127, 128, 129, 142, 218

  Chatto & Windus 121, 123

  Chester, Gail 135

  Cheyne Place, Chelsea 23–4

  Cholmeley, Jane 139

  Cholmondeley, Mary 84

  Chopin, Kate 80

  Christie, Julie 98

  Churchwell, Sarah Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of the Great Gatsby 245

  City Limits (magazine) 34

  Clapp, Susannah 76

  Clarke, Desmond 134

  Cliff, Michelle 55

  Clinton, Bill 144

  Co-operative Women’s Guild 26, 27

  Coach House, Toronto 25, 106

  Coates, Tim 179

  Coe, Jonathan 72

  Coetzee, J. M. 252

  Colette 75

  Collector’s Cards 74

  Collins, Merle 151

  Compendium 139

  Compton-Burnett, Ivy 71

  Comyns, Barbara 74 The Vet’s Daughter 80

  Cooke, Miriam see Badran, Margot and Miriam Cooke (eds)

  Cooke, Rachel 72–3 Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties 70

  Coonan, Donna 70, 85, 87, 88–9, 189, 191, 192, 253

  Cooper, Karen 129

  Cottam, Hilary Radical Help: How We Can Remake The Relationships Between Us and Revolutionise the Welfare State 97

  Cousins, Jane Make it Happy:What Sex is all About 7, 36

  Craigie, Jill 33, 98

  Crenshaw, Kimberlé 222

  Cross, Amanda 112, 223

  Curtis Brown 239

  Cusk, Rachel 244, 252

  Dadzie, Stella see Bryan, Beverley

  Dalley, Jan 184

  Dane, Clemence 88

  Daraja Press 94–5

  Darling, Grace 147

  DasGupta, Sayantani 156

  Daunt, James 179, 180

  Davies, Margaret Llewelyn (ed.) Life as we Have Known It 26

  Maternity: Letters from Working Class Women 26

  Davies, Robertson 106

  Davin, Anna 27, 44

  Davis, Angela If They Come in the Morning 14

  Dawson, Jeremy 128

  Day, Elizabeth 70, 73

  de Beauvoir, Simone 28–9 The Second Sex 14

  de Lanerolle, Ros 154

  de Soissons, Susan 148

  Delafield, E. M. 86

  Delmar, Rosalind 27, 43

  Deraniyagala, Sonali Wave 254

  Desai, Kiran 153

  Desert Flower Foundation 96–7

  Deutsch, André 107

  Devlin, Polly 76, 82, 83

  Dialogue 155

  Dickinson, Emily 102, 119, 133

  Dickson, E. Jane 174

  Dillons 178, 179

  Dillsworth, Elise 155

  Dinesen, Isak 257

  Dirie, Waris 156 Desert Flower 96–7

  Diski, Jenny 236, 252

  Diversity in Publishing Network (DIPNet) 155

  Dizzy Heights 136

  Donoghue, Emma 217 Room 217

  Slammerkin 217

  Dorling Kindersley 136

  Dover Street, Mayfair 69, 123

  Doyle, Ursula 112, 189

  Drabble, Margaret 71, 76 The Millstone 14

  Drake, Barbara Women and Trade Unions 27

  Du Maurier, Daphne 86 Rebecca 89

  Duffy, Maureen 88

  Dunant, Sarah 112, 113–14, 191, 206–8 The Birth of Venus 113, 207

  Transgressions 113, 249

  War of the Words (ed.) 99

  Dundy, Elaine The Dud Avocado 84

  Life Itself! 84

  Dunn, Nell 76, 86

  Dworkin, Andrea 222

  Dzodan, Flavia 233

  Eddo-Lodge, Renni Why I am No Longer Talking to White People About Race 157

  Edmund Gordon 168

  Eichborn 96

  Einstein for Beginners 31

  el Sadaawi, Nawal 136

  Eliot, George 114 The Lifted Veil 83

  Elliott Advisors 179

  Ellmann, Lucy Sweet Desserts 112

  Eltahawy, Mona Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution 91

  Emecheta, Buchi 153

  Emilia Report into the Gender Gap for Authors 238

  Enright, Anne 241, 246

  Ensler, Eve The Vagina Monologues 225

  Ephron, Nora 84

  Eric-Udorie, June 91, 103 Can We All Be Feminists? 103, 233

  Evaristo, Bernardine 153, 225

  Everywoman 11

  Fabian Women’s Group 27

  Fairbairns, Zoe 134, 136, 137 Stand We at Last 112

  Falling Wall Press 136 />
  Faludi, Susan 227–8 Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women 224, 225

  Fanon, Frantz 31

  Farrell, M. J. 81–2

  Fawcett Society 61, 166

  Feiffer, Judy 151

  Feiffer, Jules 151

  Feminism for Beginners 31

  Feminist Book Fairs 134, 156–7 see also First International Feminist Book Fair

  Feminist Book Week 135, 138

  Feminist Review, The 11, 136

  Ferrier, Susan 83

  Fielding, Helen Bridget Jones’s Diary 225

  Fifty Shades of Feminism 156, 230, 244

  Figes, Eva 136 Patriarchal Attitudes 14, 48

  Figes, Kate 100

  First International Feminist Book Fair 135–41, 233

  Fitzgerald, Penelope 76

  Florence, Peter 147–8

  Fontana 136

  Foot, Michael 33

  Foot, Paul 76

  Ford, Richard 242

  Forgan, Rosemary (ed) There’s Something About a Convent Girl 99

  Forward, Toby 160–1

  Foulston, Jill 189

  Foyles ix, 70, 178, 179

  Frame, Janet 89, 257

  Frances-White, Deborah 65 The Guilty Feminist 101, 232

  Frank Cass publishers 19

  Franklin, Miles 83

  Fraser, Sylvia My Father’s House 101

  Freeman, Jo ‘The Tyranny of Structurelessness’ 32

  Freire, Paulo 31

  French, Marilyn The War Against Women 224

  The Women’s Room 14, 223

  Freud for Beginners 31

  Friday, Nancy My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies 23–4

  Friedan, Betty 229 The Feminine Mystique 14

  Gallant, Mavis 106

  GAP (Greater Access to Publishing) 154, 155

  Gavron, Bob 24, 125, 127, 180, 182, 183, 185

  Gavron, Kate 183, 185

  Gay Men’s Press 80