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Virago Timeline – 1980s
Five decades of feminist publishing
Browse our history to learn how Virago started and where we are today.
1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s
1980: The new man
The Virago Modern Classics publishes the new man – all Georges: George Gissing, George Bernard Shaw, George Meredith, and H.G. Wells – and all writing about the new woman of the late 1800s.
1981: Virago Moves
Virago moves to the top floor sharing office space with Oxford University Press, Ely House, Dover Street, Mayfair.
1981: Publishing feminist thinkers
Throughout the seventies and eighties, Virago publish some of the major feminist thinkers including Kate Millett, Adrienne Rich, Eva Figes, Juliet Mitchell, Lynne Segal, Sheila Rowbotham, Barbara Taylor, Carolyn Steedman, Beatrix Campbell and Elaine Showalter.
1981:The Art of Starvation: Anorexia Observed
The Art of Starvation: Anorexia Observed by Sheila MacLeod wins the Mind Book of the Year Award.
1982: Virago becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chatto, Virago, Bodley Head and Cape Group.
Carmen Callil remains Chair of Virago, but takes up role of Publisher at Chatto. Ursula Owen and Harriet Spicer become Joint-managing Directors of Virago. Company moves to the Chatto building, William IV Street, Covent Garden, London.
1982: Union Street wins the First Fawcett Society Prize
Pat Barker’s first book Union Street wins the First Fawcett Society Prize.
1982: Virago Modern Classics publishes Elizabeth Taylor
Virago Modern Classics begins its long and devoted publishing of Elizabeth Taylor.
1983: Isaac Deutcher Memorial Award winner
Eve and the New Jerusalem by Barbara Taylor wins the Isaac Deutcher Memorial Award.
1983: The Tidy House wins the Fawcett Society Prize
The Tidy House by Carolyn Steedman wins the Fawcett Society Prize in 1983.
1983: Virago’s first feminist saga
Virago publish the first feminist saga, Stand We At Last by Zoe Fairbairns.
1983: Rally staged around Over Our Dead Bodies
Celebrities and authors stage a rally at Central Hall Westminster for 2000 people, organised around Over Our Dead Bodies: Women Against the Bomb edited by Dorothy Thompson.
1984: Wigan Pier Revisited published
Beatrix Campbell retraces Orwell’s steps in Wigan Pier Revisted.
1984: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is published for the first time in the UK. Maya Angelou danced, sang and laughed her way into British hearts. We have since published nineteen of her books and have sold millions of copies.
1985: I’m Not A Feminist But. . .
I’m Not a Feminist But…, a volume of cartoons by Christine Roche, puts its finger on the pulse of ’80s politics.
1985: Is the Future Female? – Troubled Thoughts on Contemporary Feminism
Is the Future Female? – Troubled Thoughts on Contemporary Feminism by Lynne Segal challenged many of the current feminist orthodoxies.
1986: The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain
The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe wins the Martin Luther King Award.
1986: Virago Travellers series launched
The Virago Travellers series is launched with A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird and Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley. A highly successful series, it reprinted the extraordinary stories of the journeys of some of the greatest travellers including Gertrude Bell, Emily Eden, Lucie Duff Gordon, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
1986: Their Eyes Were Watching God is published as a Virago Modern Classic
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is published as a Virago Modern Classic. It is read on many courses and has sold well over 100,000 copies.
1987: Virago management buy-out
Carmen Callil, Lennie Goodings, Ursula Owen, Alexandra Pringle and Harriet Spicer complete a management buy-out from CVBC, then owned by Random House USA. Finance is provided by Rothschild Ventures and Robert Gavron. Random House retain a ten per cent stake. Virago moves to Mandela Street, Camden Town.
1988: Sweet Desserts
Sweet Desserts by Lucy Ellmann wins the Guardian Fiction Prize.