Virago News

INTRODUCTION   My name is Carrie Goldberg and I’m a victims’ rights lawyer. Some people call me a “passionate advocate” or a “social justice warrior.” I’d rather be called a ruthless motherfucker. I operate my firm, C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, with one fundamental rule: if one of my clients has been harmed, somebody must pay. It’s […]

Discover Dorothy West   This month we publish Dorothy West’s The Wedding and The Richer, The Poorer, with a wonderful new introduction by Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People.   ‘A writer of huge compassion and acute observation, and also of dazzling style . . . Her work is more relevant than ever’ Diana Evans […]

  Virago Modern Classics Book Club August 2019 The Sleeping Beauty by Elizabeth Taylor Our book of the month this August is The Sleeping Beauty by Elizabeth Taylor.   Elizabeth Taylor was an English novelist and short-story writer, whom Antonia Fraser called ‘one of the most underrated writers of the 20th century’. The Sleeping Beauty, her sixth […]

  My Needle Points to North by Una   Today, August 1st, is Yorkshire Day apparently. This was news to me. As far as I’m concerned, every day is Yorkshire Day. From my research (OK, I went on the internet a bit) it seems official Yorkshire Day is mainly mayors. No, really, tons of mayors! […]

My Wrappa of Irish Literary Female Writers   My publishers sent me a piece from the Irish Times by John Boyne on the Irish literary tea towel in which he highlighted the absence of female writers on the old literary tea towel. They wondered if I would be interested in doing something in the same […]

Virago is delighted to reveal the jacket for Sandi Tokvig’s wonderful memoir, Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus which they publish on October 31st. Says Sandi Toksvig, who will also record the audio book: ‘I loved what I saw from the top deck (preferably in the right-hand seat at the front). It taught me to look again at the familiar and find new pleasures. This book is not a journey […]

Virago are delighted to announce Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus by the inimitable Sandi Toksvig, which is to be published on October 31, 2019. Writer, broadcaster, activist, comic on stage, screen and radio for nearly forty years, presenter of QI and Great British Bake-Off star, Sandi Toksvig is one of Britain’s best-loved characters.  She says ‘Between the […]

Hormonal by Eleanor Morgan explores everything from contraception to PMS, in relation to anxiety, depression and taboos about hysteria and the ‘hormonal’ woman. It is a compelling portrait of the modern landscape of women and health, showing us how to navigate stigma and misinformation.   Combining her own experiences with extensive research and expert contributions, Eleanor Morgan explores […]

  Virago Modern Classics Book Club JULY 2019 Noel Streatfeild’s Holiday Stories by Noel Streatfeild Our book of the month this July is Noel Streatfeild’s Holiday Stories – perfectly nostalgic summer holiday reading! In this captivating new collection, there are stories for every reader to enjoy: unforgettable holidays and unlikely friendships, crime-solving adventures and dancers in the […]

To mark the publication of Margaret Atwood’s new novel, The Testaments and to celebrate forty years of publishing with Virago – her novel Surfacing was one of the first Virago Modern Classics in 1979 – Virago are publishing on August 22 2019, four of her novels as Collector’s Editions. In paperback at £9.99 in stunning new designs with flaps and foil, these four books: Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin are some of her greatest novels.

When a dead body is found in the Thames, caught in the chains of HMS Belfast, it begins a search for a missing woman and confirms a sense that in London a person can become invisible once outside their community – and that assumes they even have a community. A policeman, a documentary film-maker and an Irish nurse named Chrissie all respond to the death of the unknown woman in their own ways. London is a place of random meetings, shifting relationships – and some, like Chrissie intersect with many. The film-maker and the policeman meanwhile have safe homes with wives – or do they? An immigrant family speaks their own language only privately; they have managed to integrate – or have they? The wonderful Linda Grant weaves a tale around ideas of home; how London can be a place of exile or expulsion, how home can be a physical place or an idea. How all our lives intersect and how coincidence or the randomness of birth place can decide how we live and with whom.

  We are delighted to share the beautiful cover for Jessica J. Lee’s new book, Two Trees Make a Forest: On Memory, Migration and Taiwan.   Part-nature writing, part-biography and beautifully written, Two Trees Make a Forest traces the natural and human stories that shaped an island and a family. Jessica is the author of Turning: Lessons […]

Our book of the month this June is The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister – the inspiration for the HBO/BBC series: Gentleman Jack.

  Gentleman Jack has been such a resounding success that BBC/HBO have already commissioned the second series – welcome news indeed. It’s a satisfying period drama but with a modern twist in both its subject and approach: tantalisingly, the wealthy landowner in search of a wife is a woman; and playfully, this thoroughly modern woman […]

by Grace Paley Virago Modern Classics Book Club May 2019 The Collected Stories of Grace Paley   This May our Virago Modern Classics Book Club selection is The Collected Stories of Grace Paley. Regarded as one of the finest American short story writers and admired by George Saunders, Susan Sontag and Salman Rushdie, this collection […]