Guest Blog Post

To celebrate the publication of Lullaby Beach we welcomed author Stella Duffy to the Virago blog. Lullaby Beach is out 4th Feb 2021. * * * I love writing about ‘ordinary’ people. All ordinary people are also […]

The folktales of the British Isles tell stories of strange desires and troublingly alluring figures. They dig up remnants of old beliefs and patrol the shadowy borderlands between life and death. Folktales seize us with […]

Hags at Hallowe’en By Professor Carolyne Larrington As the witching hour approaches we asked folklore expert, Professor Carolyne Larrington to tell us why Hallowe’en is such a powerful time for the Hag.   Hallowe’en is […]

*SPOILER ALERT* If you’ve not read (or watched) Rebecca we recommend revisiting this article later.   Rebecca is a book that is not only read differently by each generation, but it brings to each reader, at […]

Did you hear? Everyone’s favourite du Maurier novel is getting a shiny new adaptation!   Director Ben Wheatley has gone back to the book for inspiration for this fresh new look at a timeless story […]

Your Planet Needs You! is an informative and practical guide to the issues facing our planet and the steps we can take to make our future greener, fairer and more sustainable. The book – an […]

I’m often asked about the southcentral Alaskan landscape in The Unpassing – the spruce forests, the sparse coasts, the long summer days, the beached whale. The outdoor setting offers solace to the characters, but it […]

With restrictions beginning to ease author Linda Grant shares what she has discovered about herself, her neighbours and her city during lockdown. The flat is on a road which dissects east-west the brow of a […]

 For the most part, parents are the villains of literary fiction. In lieu of zombies, aliens and murderers, we have ‘depressed mom’ and ‘alcoholic, abusive dad’. Or vice versa. They fuck you up, your mum […]

My family and I emigrated from Ukraine to Canada in 1997. My sister, twelve years old at the time, couldn’t wait to leave. Browsing my aunt’s German toy catalogues with their glossy tableaux of happy […]

This year’s theme for the UK’s Maternal Mental Health Awareness week is ‘Journey to Recovery’ – a phenomenon, as a psychotherapist, that I often have the privilege to be a part of. I meet many […]

  A world free for all!was the rallying cry at the end of the Second World War. Free, did they say? Not for women, and not yet. Both East and West were taken up for […]