Reading Rule Britannia you would be forgiven for thinking Daphne du Maurier predicted Brexit. This prescient novel, first published nearly 50 years ago, explores a future where Britain has separated from Europe in favour of a political, economic and military alliance with the United States. ‘It is rather awful, Emma thought as she walked across the fields down to the farm, how…
Writers as Readers: A Celebration of Virago Modern Classics Introduction: Forty years ago, the Virago Modern Classics list was created by Carmen Callil, and it’s not an overstatement to say that it changed literary history. Launching with Antonia White’s elegant, devastating autobiographical novel, Frost in May, the list’s aim was, and is, to celebrate women…
First published in 1942, The Seventh Cross will be released for the first time in the UK on 7th June. Like Alone in Berlin and Suite Française, The Seventh Cross is a powerful, defiant and gripping novel, written and set when the Nazis were in power. Here the editor, Donna Coonan, introduces this incredible classic, and…
Special Anniversary Edition of Du Maurier’s Rebecca This March we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. We are marking this milestone with a gorgeous jacketed hardback edition, featuring artwork designed by Hannah Wood and brought to life by Hand & Lock, a specialist embroidery firm. Order your special anniversary edition here….
A childhood favourite that deserves a re-read. ‘Oh, it seems so wonderful that I’m going to live with you and belong to you. I’ve never belonged to anybody’ When a scrawny, freckled girl with bright red hair arrives on Prince Edward Island, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are taken by surprise; they’d asked for a quiet…
‘Is Rachel bad or good? Innocent or guilty, carnal or ‘pure’? Or does the truth lie somewhere else? Is she an anachronism, full of life, possessed of sound mind and spirit, enjoying her sexu-ality as and where and with whomsoever she might wish, a woman in a man’s world, determined to escape from the limitations…
This July marks fifty years since the creation of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, which decriminalized homesexual acts between men in England and Wales, and birthed the modern LGBTQ movement in Britain. With Pride Festival kicking off on Saturday 24th June, there couldn’t be a better time to shed some light on this (somewhat)…
The March VMC book club pick was The Women’s Room, by Marilyn French. As a landmark text in feminist literature, it was an appropriate choice for the month which houses International Women’s Day and the Virago #BooksforChange social media challenge. The Women’s Room was first published in 1977, and is a biting social commentary of a world…
February’s Virago Modern Classic book club selection was Deep Water, by the ‘original, gloriously twisted Queen of suspense’ Patricia Highsmith. The novel was first published in 1957, and counts Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn among it’s many fans. The Virago Modern Classic edition includes material from Flynn, taken from her Wall Street Journal interview on the…
With the film starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin scheduled for nationwide release next month, May feels like the perfect time to rediscover Daphne du Maurier’s mysterious, thrilling My Cousin Rachel. The Guardian placed this classic firmly ‘In the same category as Rebecca, but an even more consummate piece of storytelling’ while New York Times Book Review found My…
