OurShelves Podcast

OurShelves: Backstage with Dame Eileen Atkins How does the writing we love create the roles we perform? Join Dame Eileen Atkins, stage and TV star, three-time Olivier Award winner and screenwriter of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ and […]

OurShelves: Rescue with Donna Coonan How do you rediscover a forgotten feminist masterpiece? Donna Coonan is Editorial Director of the Virago Modern Classics list, which was set up 1978 to demonstrate the existence of  a […]

OurShelves: Awakening with 吕频 Lü Pin How do you say ‘Me Too’ in Chinese – when it’s banned on social media? 吕频 Lü Pin, Chinese feminist activist featured in Awakening by Rachel Vogelstein and Meighan […]

OurShelves: Heroics with Susie Boyt How do we get through the difficult days? Susie Boyt, author and theatre director, got through the pandemic by walking for miles listening to poetry podcasts to replace the conversations […]

OurShelves: Hope with Dr Edith Widder How can we find light in the dark? Oceanographer, marine biologist and author of Below the Edge of Darkness, Edie Widder’s life has been as fascinating as the animals […]

OurShelves: Courage with Kamila Shamsie Is writing a muscle? Kamila Shamsie, prize winning novelist, fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Granta Best of Young British author, talks to Lucy Scholes about her great-aunt, […]

  Who is your feminism for? Austin Channing Brown was named by parents who deliberately wanted people to presume their daughter was a white man when applying for jobs. Now a speaker and writer working […]

  What can we learn from African women’s movements? If you knew about the women who fought a freedom war in 1914 Nigeria, would it alter your view of feminist history? Chibundu Onuzo, award-winning author […]

  How can you create your own world when this one doesn’t serve you? Join as we radically restructure myths, stories and genres – from the American West to fairy tales and nineties pop icons. […]

  How can reading rewire your brain? After a childhood spent calling Henry James her ‘dude’ and Evelyn Waugh her ‘friend’ R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries, talks to Lucy Scholes about how determinedly […]

  How can you be a strong woman in a world that’s not built for you? Justine Cowan is an attorney used to fighting environmental cases against huge corporations but writing about her mother’s childhood […]

  What do monsters do for us? Join Lucy Scholes for a powerful conversation with Riva Lehrer, artist, activist and author of Golem Girl, her beautifully illustrated memoir about living with disability. From the history […]