{"title":"Women","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"every-secret-thing","title":"Every Secret Thing","description":"A passionate witness to the colossal upheaval that has transformed her native South Africa, Gillian Slovo has written a memoir that is far more than a story of her own life.  For she is the daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid white activists, a daughter who always had to come second to political commitment.  Whilst recalling the extraordinary events which surrounded her family's persecution and exile, and reconstructing the truth of her parents' relationship and her own turbulent childhood, Gillian Slovo has also created an astonishing portrait of a courageous, beautiful mother and a father of integrity and stoicism.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542494044339,"sku":"9781844085996","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844085996-original.jpg?v=1757039221"},{"product_id":"edith-sitwell","title":"Edith Sitwell","description":"For the better part of forty years, Edith Sitwell's poetry has been neglected by critics. But born into a family of privileged eccentrics, Edith Sitwell was highly regarded by her contemporaries: the great writers and artists of the day who attended her unlikely London literary salon. Her quips and anecdotes were legendary and her works like English Eccentrics confirmed her comic genius, while later she established herself as the quintessential poet of the Blitz.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis masterly biography, meticulously researched and drawing on many previously unseen letters, firmly places Edith Sitwell in the literary tradition to which she belongs.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542494765235,"sku":"9781860499685","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781860499685-original.jpg?v=1757211730"},{"product_id":"josser","title":"Josser","description":"JOSSER is the powerful and moving account of Oxford-educated Nell Stroud's life in the circus. It is also the story of the people of the circus: the trapeze artists, the clowns, the high-wire acts, the grooms, the llamas, the elephants - their commitment and expertise, their hard, marginalised, miraculous lives. Following a terrible riding accident which left her mother permanently brain-damaged, Nell ran away to the circus. What she found there was a life which became more real to her than the one she left behind. She found people who had sacrificed their lives for their art, who worked in all weathers, perfecting some of the most dramatic and beautiful acts ever seen. She found third-generation show-people who travelled around forgotten parts of Britain to bring their abstract, polished, multi-layered show to ever dwindling audiences. She found herself in an art form that soon, if we are not careful, we will lose.  Whilst she has lived and worked among the circus people for several years, she is not one of them: she was not born in the circus. In their words she is a 'josser' a person in the circus from the outside world. This is her story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The circus does cast a spell over some people. I felt overwhelmed by it. The circus filled up existence and left room for nothing else. What was there to do?","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542495551667,"sku":"9781860496950","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781860496950-original.jpg?v=1771411071"},{"product_id":"selected-letters-of-edith-sitwell","title":"Selected Letters Of Edith Sitwell","description":"Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) was, through four decades, the most prominent and celebrated woman poet in Britain.  Among the notable admirers of her work were Siegfried Sassoon, WB Yeats and Gertrude Stein, Stephen Spender and Marianne Moore.  Just after her death, Allen Tate described her in The New York Times as 'one of the great poets of the twentieth century'.  Even as one allows for the ebb and flow of literary reputations, Edith Sitwell will have permanent claim on the attention of readers and literary scholars.  She and her two brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell, were the focus of a movement in English Literature described as an 'alternative Bloomsbury'.  This volume includes unpublished letters to many significant figures, including WB Yeats, Bertrand Russell and Benjamin Britten.  It also contains letters that illuminate Sitwell's relations with other women writers, among them, Gertrude Stein and Rosamond Lehmann.\u003cbr\u003e'I am besotted with this dotty old bat. Britain's most celebrated and eccentric female poet, she dashed off reams of witty, newsy, mischievous letters in exquisitely beautiful prose. Every letter is a gem' - Val Hennessy (one of her top ten books for 1997), Daily Mail","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542496764083,"sku":"9781844085088","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844085088-original.jpg?v=1771411360"},{"product_id":"the-womens-room","title":"The Women's Room","description":"\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL AND BESTSELLING NOVELS OF THE MODERN FEMINIST MOVEMENT \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'It was about the need to change things from top to bottom; it was a declaration of independence' \u003ci\u003eOBSERVER \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The first and last international bestseller of the women's movement' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'They said this book would change lives - and it certainly changed mine' JENNI MURRAY, BBC RADIO 4 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA landmark in feminist literature, \u003ci\u003eThe Women's Room \u003c\/i\u003eis a biting social commentary of a world gone silently haywire. Written in the 1970s but with profound resonance today, this is a modern allegory that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted blindly and revered so completely.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt follows the transformation of Mira Ward and her circle as the women's movement begins to have an impact on their lives. A biting social commentary on an emotional world gone silently haywire, \u003ci\u003eThe Women's Room\u003c\/i\u003e is a modern classic that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted so blindly and revered so completely. Marilyn French questions those accepted norms and poignantly portrays the hopeful believers looking for new truths.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542497321139,"sku":"9781860492822","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781860492822-original.jpg?v=1771467635"},{"product_id":"time-after-time","title":"Time After Time","description":"\u003cb\u003eFROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A considerable achievement' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Highly recommended' \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Excellent entertainment: an absorbing book' \u003ci\u003eTIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eDurraghglass is a beautiful mansion in Southern Ireland, now crumbling in neglect.  The time is the present - a present that churns with the bizarre passions of its owners' past.  The Swifts - three sisters of marked eccentricity, defiantly christened April, May and Baby June, and their only brother, one-eyed Jasper - have little in common, save vivid memories of darling Mummy, and a long lost youth peculiarly prone to acts of treachery. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInto their world comes Cousin Leda from Vienna, a visitor from the past, blind but beguiling - a thrilling guest.  But within days, the lifestyle of the Swifts has been dramatically overturned - and desires, dormant for so long, flame fierce and bright as ever.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542498435251,"sku":"9781844083275","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844083275-original.jpg?v=1771467658"},{"product_id":"even-silence-has-an-end","title":"Even Silence Has An End","description":"Ingrid Betancourt's story - her exemplary courage, spirit and resilience - has captured the world's imagination. A politician and presidential candidate celebrated for her determination to combat the corruption and climate of fear endemic in Colombia, in 2002 she was taken hostage by FARC, a terrorist guerrilla organisation. She was held captive in the depths of the jungle for six and a half years, chained day and night for much of that time, constantly on the move and enduring gruelling conditions. She was freed and reunited with her children and relatives in 2008.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is Betancourt's indomitable spirit that drives this important and deeply moving book, telling in her own words the extraordinary drama of her capture and eventual rescue, and describes her fight to survive, mentally and physically. As she confronts the horror of what she went through, her story also goes beyond the specifics of her own confinement to offer an intensely intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate reflection on what it means to be human.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542498926771,"sku":"9781844086139","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844086139-original.jpg?v=1771411395"},{"product_id":"the-thorn-birds","title":"The Thorn Birds","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Excellent' \u003ci\u003eDAILY TELEGRAPH \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A true epic . . . this stunning tale has been called the Australian \u003ci\u003eGone With the Wind\u003c\/i\u003e' \u003ci\u003eDAILY MAIL  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the biggest-selling, most widely read books in the history of fiction' \u003ci\u003eOBSERVER \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eIn the rugged Australian Outback, three generations of Clearys live through joy and sadness, bitter defeat and magnificent triumph - driven by their dreams, sustained by remarkable strength of character and torn by dark passions, violence and a scandalous family legacy of forbidden love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Clearys' only daughter, Meggie, who can never possess the man she so desperately adores - Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph will rise from parish priest to the inner circles of the Vatican . . . but his passion for Meggie will follow him all the days of his life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA timeless epic romance - a battle between faith and the heart.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542499451059,"sku":"9781844084470","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844084470-original.jpg?v=1771467674"},{"product_id":"84-charing-cross-road","title":"84 Charing Cross Road","description":"\u003cb\u003eA TRUE STORY THAT HAS TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF THOUSANDS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Unmitigated delight from cover to cover' \u003ci\u003eDAILY TELEGRAPH \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A real-life love story . . . A timeless period piece. Do read it' \u003ci\u003eWALL STREET JOURNAL \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Beguile an hour of your time and put you in tune with mankind' \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eThis charming classic, first published in 1970, brings together twenty years of correspondence between Helene Hanff, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London. Through the years, though never meeting and separated both geographically and culturally, they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Their relationship, captured so acutely in these letters, is one that will grab your heart and not let go.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542500434099,"sku":"9781860498503","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781860498503-original.jpg?v=1771467682"},{"product_id":"desert-flower","title":"Desert Flower","description":"Waris Dirie (the name means desert flower) lives a double life - by day she is a famous model and UN spokeswoman on women's rights in Africa, at night she dreams of her native Somalia.  Waris, one of 12 children, was born into a traditional family of desert nomads in East Africa.  She remembers her early childhood as carefree- racing camels and moving on with her family to the next grazing spot - until it came her turn to meet the old woman who administered the ancient custom imposed on most Somalian girls: circumcision. Waris suffered this torture when she was just five years old.  Then, aged 12, when her father attempted to arrange a  marriage with a 60 year old stranger in exchange for five camels - she took flight.  After an extraordinary escape through the dangerous desert she made her way to London and worked as a maid for the Somalian ambassador until that family returned home.  Penniless and speaking little English, she became a janitor in McDonalds where she was famously discovered by a fashion photographer.  Her story is a truly inspirational and extraordinary self-portrait of a remarkable woman whose spirit is as breathtaking as her beauty.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542500827315,"sku":"9781860497582","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781860497582-original.jpg?v=1771411454"},{"product_id":"union-street","title":"Union Street","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Vivid, bawdy and bitter' \u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A first-rate first novel . . . pungent, raunchy dialogue . . . passages of fine understated wit' IVAN GOLD, \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePat Barker's first novel shows the women of Union Street, young and old, meeting the harsh challeges of poverty and survival in a precarious world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eThere's Kelly, at eleven, neglected and independent, dealing with a squalid rape; Dinah, knocking on sixty and still on the game; Joanne, not yet twenty, not yet married and already pregnant. Old Alice is welcoming her impending death whilst Muriel helplessly watches the decline of her stoical husband.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd linking them all, watching over them all, mother to half the street, is fiery, indomitable Iris.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542503153843,"sku":"9780860682837","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780860682837-original.jpg?v=1757471228"},{"product_id":"affinity","title":"Affinity","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAn eerily brilliant and spooky tale of spiritualism and deception\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e'Now you know why you are drawn to me - why your flesh comes creeping to mine, and what it comes for. Let it creep.' \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the dark heart of a Victorian prison, disgraced spiritualist Selina Dawes weaves an enigmatic spell. Is she a fraud, or a prodigy? By the time it all begins to matter, you'll find yourself desperately wanting to believe in magic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Refined, repressed and simmering... a delicious tale of Victorian spiritualism' \u003ci\u003eIndependent on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written' Val Hennessy \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Beautifully, atmospherically written, this is a tale to thrill your very soul' \u003ci\u003eMetro\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Sexy, spooky, stylish... a wonderful book' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2024-05-16, Edition 950140.0 )","offer_id":42704402809011,"sku":"9780349018492","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2012-05-03 )","offer_id":42999724834995,"sku":"9781860496929","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/files\/9780349018492-original.jpg?v=1771467714"},{"product_id":"out-of-the-picture","title":"Out Of The Picture","description":"Quite unlike her fair stepsisters, Lizzie is dark and secretive: 'Just like your father' says her mother. But what was her father like? Photos of him are hidden away; snatches of overheard conversation between her mother and her stepfather deepen the mystery. Only her best friend Savannah - also abandoned by her father when she was a baby - knows what it feels like to wonder, to try and piece together an earlier story. But when events propel Lizzie alone to London she stops wondering and starts searching...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeautifully evoking the ache of childhood loss, the scrappy joys of chaotic families, and the hurt and relief of understanding, OUT OF THE PICTURE reveals Polly Samson's talent for laying bare the uncomfortable truths that lie just under the skin - in every family, in every secret.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542503940275,"sku":"9781844088065","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844088065-original.jpg?v=1755311215"},{"product_id":"taking-chances","title":"Taking Chances","description":"\u003cb\u003eBY THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She was . . . marvellous' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Molly Keane . . . is robust about sinful human nature and the intrigues of the heart' V. S. PRITCHET \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Keane's distinctive blend of elegant savagery and deep affection' \u003ci\u003eEVENING STANDARD \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThose who suffered because of her might think of Mary that she hurt others, herself she could not hurt; but Jer, knowing her better . . . knew she hurt herself perhaps most deeply.  Since the death of her parents, Roguey, Maeve and Jer have cared for one another and for Sorristown, their elegant home.  Together they have fished and hunted, unravelled secrets by bedroom fires and sipped gin cocktails. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But this pattern of intimacy is about to be broken by Maeve's marriage to Rowley.  A week  before the wedding, her bridesmaid Mary arrives.  Meeting her for the first time Rowley describes Mary as a 'factor for disturbance', little realising the extent to which his prophecy will prove true for each of them.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542505021619,"sku":"9781844084005","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844084005-original.jpg?v=1755311237"},{"product_id":"lying-in-bed","title":"Lying In Bed","description":"Do you cover up or reveal it all; seek revenge or just reassurance; let the truth be naked as the day or cloaked in a night-time story? The men and women of Polly Samson's debut fiction all have stories to tell, pasts to forget, futures to forge.  Manipulative or meek, used or using, all are aware of the power of truth, deception and little white lies to get what they want or sometimes what they deserve. Some are concerned with the economies of speech, those little 'kindnesses' which protect our loved ones but really ourselves; some investigate the warped logic which adults serve out to children to keep them 'innocent'; all are concerned with the beds we make and the lies we tell in them. . .","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542505873587,"sku":"9781844087082","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844087082-original.jpg?v=1755311264"},{"product_id":"vera-brittain-a-life","title":"Vera Brittain: A Life","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ch4\u003eThe definitive biography of Vera Brittain, acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eTestament of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e. With a new introduction by Mark Bostridge.\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Riveting and authoritative' \u003c\/b\u003eKate Figes,\u003ci\u003e Independent on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Honest, precise and smart' \u003c\/b\u003eNatasha Walter,\u003ci\u003e Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'They succeed triumphantly... A fascinating portrait' \u003c\/b\u003eFiona MacCarthy, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVera Brittain is most widely known as the woman who immortalized a lost generation in her haunting autobiography of the Great War, \u003ci\u003eTestament of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis biography is the most comprehensive, authoritative life of one of the most remarkable women of her time. Based on unpublished papers and first-hand knowledge, the authors create a candid and sympathetic portrait of the writer, pacifist and feminist. They reveal the truth about Vera Brittain's 'semi-detached' marriage, her friendship with Winifred Holtby, and her relationships with her brother Edward and fiancé Roland Leighton, killed in the First World War, memories of whom haunted her all her days. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, the NCR Non-Fiction Prize and the Fawcett Prize.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2022-11-03 )","offer_id":41467114029235,"sku":"9780349015019","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2008-11-06 )","offer_id":37542506037427,"sku":"9781844085460","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349015019-original.jpg?v=1771411612"},{"product_id":"the-blind-assassin","title":"The Blind Assassin","description":"\u003cb\u003eTHE 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE WINNER OF THE 2000 BOOKER PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWITH A BRAND-NEW PREFACE FROM MARGARET ATWOOD HERSELF, THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF \u003ci\u003eTHE HANDMAID'S TALE \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003ci\u003eTHE TESTAMENTS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eDecades after Laura's mysterious demise, her sister Iris recounts her memories of their childhood, and of the dramatic deaths that have punctuated their wealthy, eccentric family's history. Intertwined with Iris's story are chapters from the scandalous novel that made Laura famous, in which two unnamed lovers meet secretly in rented rooms and seedy cafés, themselves writing a pulp fantasy novel of a blind killer on a distant planet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs these stories-within-stories twist and turn through love and jealousy, self-sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real narrative, as all move closer to catastrophe in a brilliant and astonishing final twist. By turns lyrical, outrageous, formidable, compelling and funny, this is a novel filled with deep humour and dark drama.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2025-10-16 )","offer_id":55018915725688,"sku":"9780349020525","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2020-01-09 )","offer_id":37542509838515,"sku":"9780349013060","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/files\/9780349020525-original.jpg?v=1762957373"},{"product_id":"ellen-foster","title":"Ellen Foster","description":"\u003cb\u003eTHIS AWARD-WINNING AMERICAN CLASSIC IS AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A breathtaking first novel' WALKER PERCY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Filled with lively humour, compassion and integrity' ALICE HOFFMAN, \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A work of considerable subtlety and intellectual sophistication' JONATHAN YARDLEY, \u003ci\u003eWASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e'When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy.'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eSo begins the tale of \u003ci\u003eEllen Foster\u003c\/i\u003e, the brave and engaging heroine of Kaye Gibbons's first novel, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. The story of an eleven-year-old orphan, driven to desperation by some of the wickedest relatives in literary history, this is the story of her battle for survival. Her courage, her humour, and her wisdom are unforgettable as she tells her own story with stunning honesty and insight.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542510067891,"sku":"9781860496059","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781860496059-original.jpg?v=1771411634"},{"product_id":"my-forbidden-face","title":"My Forbidden Face","description":"Latifa was born into an educated middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980. She dreamed of one day of becoming a journalist, she was interested in fashion, movies and friends. Her father was in the import\/export business and her mother was a doctor.\u003cbr\u003eThen in September 1996, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. From that moment, Latifa, just 16 years old became a prisoner in her own home. Her school was closed. Her mother was banned from working. The simplest and most basic freedoms - walking down the street, looking out a window - were no longer hers. She was now forced to wear a chadri. \u003cbr\u003eMy Forbidden Face provides a poignant and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful honesty and clarity Latifa describes the way she watched her world falling apart, in the name of a fanatical interpretation of a faith that she could not comprehend. Her voice captures a lost innocence, but also echoes her determination to live in freedom and hope.  \u003cbr\u003eEarlier this year, Latifa and her parents escaped Afghanistan with the help of a French-based Afghan resistance group.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542511280307,"sku":"9781860499616","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781860499616-original.jpg?v=1771467737"},{"product_id":"desert-dawn","title":"Desert Dawn","description":"Fashion model, UN ambassador and courageous spirit, Waris Dirie is a remarkable woman, born into a traditional family of tribal desert nomads in Somalia. She told her story - enduring, at five years old, the ancient and savage custom of female circumcision; running away at twelve on foot through the desert in order to escape an arranged marriage; being discovered by Terence Donovan as she worked as a cleaner in London; and becoming a top fashion model - in her book, the worldwide bestseller, Desert Flower.\u003cbr\u003eAlthough Waris Dirie fled her homeland, she never forgot the country and culture that moulded her. The world of famine and violence, where women have no voice and no place - the very world that nearly destroyed her also gave her the tools to survive. She traces the roots of her courage, resilience and humour back to her motherland, and most particularly to her mother.   \u003cbr\u003eDesert Dawn is the story of that return and a testimony to the stubborn fact that you can love something dearly and yet not love all that it represents. Desert Dawn is about coming home.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542512033971,"sku":"9781844080083","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844080083-original.jpg?v=1771467748"},{"product_id":"a-song-flung-up-to-heaven","title":"A Song Flung Up to Heaven","description":"\u003cb\u003eA memoir of politics and activism, from the bestselling and beloved author of \u003ci\u003eI KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is 1964 and Maya Angelou is on her way back home, leaving behind her beloved - and now seriously teenage son Guy, to finish university in Ghana. America is pulsing with the challenge of change, the civil rights movement is in full swing and that's where Maya Angelou wants to be, working alongside her friends Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this marvellous account, Maya Angelou provides, with her customary wisdom, compassion and wit, a first-hand record of an extraordinarily exciting and tragic political period. She writes of Jimmy Baldwin, Eldridge Cleaver, and of friends and family, and finishes with the beginnings of her career as one of America's most impressive memoir writers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":42704402841779,"sku":"9780349017099","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349017099-original.jpg?v=1771411682"},{"product_id":"all-of-us-there","title":"All Of Us There","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Touching and nostalgic' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She conjures places as vividly as feelings, and feelings as exactly as her surroundings'\u003ci\u003e VOGUE \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'It is the only intimate and un-angry expression of the feelings of a colonised people that I have ever read' DAVID THOMSON \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003ePolly Devlin grew up in County Tyrone, on the shores of Lough Neagh in the fifties, but it might as well have been another time and place altogether.  In this memoir, she describes in witty, spontaneous and idiosyncratic prose her life as one of seven siblings in a Catholic family in Northern Ireland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A brooding, evocative study of Irish childhood, of the strong bonds of love and jealousy that sisters especially feel, the guilt-ridden pressures of religion, the magical countryside, the eccentric villagers.  A hauntingly lovely work . . . beautifully written with poetic intensity which seems to encapsulate the Irish character with all its wit and bitterness and gift for words'  \u003ci\u003eHOMES AND GARDENS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542513770675,"sku":"9781844080441","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844080441-original.jpg?v=1755311393"},{"product_id":"i-choose-to-live","title":"I Choose To Live","description":"I lived through the Dutroux affair from the inside, and all these years I have kept silent about it - about my 'personal' Dutroux Affair, my time in the company of the most hated psychopath in Belgium. I need to write this book for three reasons: so that people stop giving me strange looks and treating me like a curiosity; so that no one ever asks me any more questions ever again; and so that the judicial system never again frees a paedophile for 'good behaviour'.' \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The Dutroux Affair' shook the whole of Europe. In the middle of the immense machinery of investigation and justice there was Sabine Dardenne herself, Dutroux's last victim. She was held captive for eighty days  - and survived.  Far from sensationalising the horror, her story, dignified and restrained, is ultimately uplifting.  Says Sabine Dardenne, 'I choose to live'.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542514852019,"sku":"9781844082681","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844082681-original.jpg?v=1771467780"},{"product_id":"time-out-of-mind","title":"Time Out Of Mind","description":"Who are you when your brain is not you?'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJane Lapotaire is one of the lucky ones. Many people do not survive, let alone live intelligently and well again once they have suffered cerebral haemorrhage. In the long haul back to life - 'nearly dying was the easy bit' - she's learned much, some of it very hard lessons. Some friendships became casualties; family relations had to be redefined; and her work as an actress took a severe battering. The stress of living is felt that much more keenly when 'sometimes I still feel as if I am walking around with my brain outside my body. A brain still all too available for smashing by noise, physical jostling, or any form of harshness'. But she has survived and now believes it herself when people say how lucky she is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a very moving, darkly funny, honest book about what happens when the 'you' you've known all your life is no longer the same you.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542516523187,"sku":"9781844080557","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844080557-original.jpg?v=1755311507"},{"product_id":"west-with-the-night","title":"West With The Night","description":"","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542520291507,"sku":"9780860685418","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780860685418-original.jpg?v=1771411805"},{"product_id":"the-passion-of-new-eve","title":"The Passion Of New Eve","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Her Imagination was one of the most dazzling this century' MARINA WALKER, \u003ci\u003eINDEPENDENT \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The way to Carter's visionary and lurid world' \u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The darting, lyrical pen of Angela Carter, mistress of the erotic picaresque' \u003ci\u003eKIRKUS REVIEWS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'I know nothing.  I am a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper, an unhatched egg.  I have not yet become a woman, although I possess a woman's shape.  Not a woman, no:  both more and less than a real woman.  Now I am a being as mythic and monstrous as Mother herself . . . '\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNew York has become the City of Dreadful Night where dissolute Leilah performs a dance of chaos for Evelyn.  But this young Englishman's fate lies in the arid desert, where a many-breasted fertility goddess will wield her scalpel to transform him into the new Eve. \u003ci\u003eThe Passion of New Eve \u003c\/i\u003eis an extraordinary journey into the apocalyptic vision of the author Lorna Sage called 'The boldest of English women writers'.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542520357043,"sku":"9780860683414","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780860683414-original.jpg?v=1771467824"},{"product_id":"testament-of-youth","title":"Testament of Youth","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Remains one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Vera Brittain's heart-rending account of the way her generation's lives changed is still as shocking and moving as ever'  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TELEGRAPH \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A heartbreaking account of the impact of the First World War on a stout-hearted, high-minded young woman'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e SUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Should be compulsive reading' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eDAILY MAIL\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat you have striven for will not end in nothing, all that you have done and been will not be wasted, for it will be a part of me as long as I live, and I shall remember, always.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eIn 1914 Vera Brittain was twenty, and as war was declared she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the lives of a whole generation - had been unimaginably changed. \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eO\u003c\/i\u003ene of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, this is her account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded; and how she emerged into an altered world to become one of the best-loved writers of her time.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55212798837112,"sku":"9780349020891","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349010274-original.jpg?v=1771467833"},{"product_id":"jane-and-prudence","title":"Jane And Prudence","description":"","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":40939664572595,"sku":"9780349016085","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349016085-original.jpg?v=1771411862"},{"product_id":"the-girl-from-hockley","title":"The Girl From Hockley","description":"The Girl from Hockley is a new, revised edition bringing together in one new volume this remarkable story. \u003cbr\u003eBorn into the industrial slums of Birmingham in 1903, Kathleen Dayus became a legend in her own time. She vividly recalls her Edwardian childhood and her life as a young munitions worker during the war, marriage and life below the poverty line in the 1920s. Early widowhood and the Depression forced her to relinquish her children to Dr Barnado's homes until, eight long years later, she could afford a home for them again. \u003cbr\u003eHer autobiography is a testament to the indomitable spirit, humour and verve that characterised her life. Her extraordinary memory for the sights, sounds and smells of her youth, her marvellous sense of the comic and above all her spirited refusal to do anything but live life to the full, deservedly made her one of the most compelling storytellers of our time.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542525042867,"sku":"9781844083022","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844083022-original.jpg?v=1756954547"},{"product_id":"invitation-to-the-waltz","title":"Invitation to the Waltz","description":"\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE BRITISH WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions' ANITA BROOKNER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Every emotional ripple is beautifully observed: the hideous anticipation' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters' MARGARET DRABBLE \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA diary for her innermost thoughts, a china ornament, a ten-shilling note, and a roll of flame-coloured silk for her first evening dress: these are the gifts Olivia Curtis receives for her seventeenth birthday. She anticipates her first dance, the greatest yet most terrifying event of her restricted social life with tremulous uncertainty and excitement. For her pretty, charming elder sister Kate, the dance is certain to be a triumph, but what will it be for shy, awkward Olivia?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExploring the daydreams and miseries attendant upon even the most innocent of social events, Rosamond Lehmann perfectly captures the emotions of a girl standing poised on the threshold  of womanhood.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2026-06-11, Edition 917839.0 )","offer_id":55386034602360,"sku":"9780349018041","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2006-03-02, Edition 50272.0 )","offer_id":37542525993139,"sku":"9781844083053","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/files\/9780349018041-original.jpg?v=1771411937"},{"product_id":"the-echoing-grove","title":"The Echoing Grove","description":"\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE BRITISH WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A love triangle of bruising intensity, with a highly intricate and elegant structure' CLARE CHAMBERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Full of her sensibility, her funniness, her own peculiar acumen' ELIZABETH JANE HOWARD \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love' MARGARET DRABBLE \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo sisters:  Madeleine and Dinah.  One husband:  Rickie Masters.  For many years now, Dinah, exotic and sensual, has conducted a clandestine affair with Rickie. Madeleine, calm and resolute, has accepted that her marriage has been of limited success.  Rickie's sudden death makes widows of both sisters in this highly imaginative novel that explores with extraordinary insight the sublimity, the rivalry and the pain of personal relationships.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She makes a mood, an atmosphere, which is never forgotten . . . The inner voice of women talking to themselves about their love affairs, knowing that it is hopeless, having to go ahead anyway, expecting the end as soon as it begins. That, of course, is what Rosamond Lehmann does best' \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2026-06-11, Edition 911286.0 )","offer_id":55386035913080,"sku":"9780349017983","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2006-03-02, Edition 50290.0 )","offer_id":37542526222515,"sku":"9781844083121","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/files\/9780349017983-original.jpg?v=1771467888"},{"product_id":"charlotte-bronte","title":"Charlotte Brontë","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this groundbreaking and unconventional biography, Lyndall Gordon dismantles the insistent image of Charlotte Bronte as a modest Victorian lady, the slave to duty in the shadow of tombstones, revealing instead a strong and fiery woman who shaped her own life and transformed it into art. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An exemplary biography'\u003c\/b\u003e Jan Marsh, \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Brilliant and powerful... Gordon brings us the closest we are ever likely to get to an understanding of the source of Charlotte Bronte's creative genius' \u003c\/b\u003eMark Bostridge, \u003ci\u003eTES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Sensitive, open-minded, vivid, full of psychological insight' \u003c\/b\u003eJackie Wullschlager, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Magnificent... Gordon's best book and the best thing about Charlotte Bronte yet' \u003c\/b\u003eFiona MacCarthy, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542528155827,"sku":"9781844084722","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/files\/9781844084722-original_89c4e4ed-b875-481a-a10c-3cb679f6cbf8.jpg?v=1771412688"},{"product_id":"the-bolter","title":"The Bolter","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ch3\u003eIdina Sackville - the 1920's style icon and seductress who 'Taylor Swift fans think \"The Bolter\" could be inspired by' \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1934 Idina Sackville met the son she had last seen fifteen years earlier when she shocked high society by running off to Africa with a near-penniless man, abandoning him, his brother and their father. So scandalous was Idina's life - she was said to have had 'lovers without number' - that it was kept a secret from her great-granddaughter, Frances Osborne. Now Osborne explores her moving tale of betrayal and heartbreak. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A corker of a subject... probably inspired The Bolter in Nancy Mitford's \u003ci\u003eThe Pursuit of Love\u003c\/i\u003e... A breakneck-paced, thoroughly diverting story' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A tragic and deeply moving tale... far more gripping than any novel I have read for years' \u003c\/b\u003eANTONY BEEVOR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Frances Osborne has brilliantly captured not only one woman's life but an entire lost society' \u003c\/b\u003eAMANDA FOREMAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An enthralling account of a dazzling, troubled life'\u003c\/b\u003e JULIAN FELLOWES","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542528385203,"sku":"9781844084807","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844084807-original.jpg?v=1771412701"},{"product_id":"the-yellow-wallpaper","title":"The Yellow Wallpaper","description":"\u003cb\u003eINTRODUCED BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A great work of literature, the product of a questing, burning intellect' MAGGIE O'FARRELL \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Even if the themes being explored might seem irrelevant . . . this is not the case' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I loved the unnerving, sarcastic tone, the creepy ending' \u003ci\u003ePARIS REVIEW \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased on the author's own experiences, \u003ci\u003eThe Yellow Wallpaper\u003c\/i\u003e is the chilling tale of a woman driven to the brink of insanity by the 'rest cure' prescribed after the birth of her child. While she is isolated in a crumbling mansion, in a room with bars on the windows, the tortuous pattern of the yellow wallpaper winds its way into the recesses of her mind. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCharlotte Perkins Gilman was America's leading feminist intellectual of the early twentieth century and a brilliant writer, editor and speaker. \u003ci\u003eThe Yellow Wallpaper\u003c\/i\u003e is her masterpiece.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542529368243,"sku":"9780860682011","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780860682011-original.jpg?v=1757471349"},{"product_id":"excellent-women","title":"Excellent Women","description":"\u003cb\u003eINTRODUCED BY ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMildred Lathbury is one of those excellent women who are often taken for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the stock situations or even the great moments of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sale, the garden fête spoilt by bad weather'. Her glamorous new neighbours, the Napiers, seem to be facing a marital crisis. One cannot take sides in these matters, though it is tricky, especially as Mildred has a soft spot for dashing young Rockingham Napier. This is Barbara Pym's world at its funniest and most touching.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the most endearingly amusing English novels of the twentieth century' ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life' ANNE TYLER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Not only was Pym a comic genius but she was ever so wise' \u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":41475360817331,"sku":"9780349016078","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":37542530089139,"sku":"9781844085262","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349016078-original.jpg?v=1771412784"},{"product_id":"less-than-angels","title":"Less Than Angels","description":"\u003cb\u003eINTRODUCED BY SALLEY VICKERS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eheart-breaking\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e silliness of everyday life' ANNE TYLER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCatherine Oliphant is a writer and lives with handsome anthropologist Tom Mallow. Their relationship runs into trouble when he begins a romance with student Deirdre Swann, so Catherine turns her attention to the reclusive anthropologist Alaric Lydgate, who has a fondness for wearing African masks. Added to this love tangle are the activities of Deirdre's fellow students and their attempts to win the competition for a research grant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe course of true love or academia never did run smooth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Her best [novels] are sheer delight, and all of them companionable. Quiet, paradoxical, funny and sad, they have the iron in them of permanence too' JOHN UPDIKE, NEW YORKER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She can be seriously, hilariously funny - no other novelist has celebrated our national silliness with such exuberance' KATE SAUNDERS\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":40939665490099,"sku":"9780349016115","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349016115-original.jpg?v=1771412812"},{"product_id":"tehran-lipstick-and-loopholes","title":"Tehran, Lipstick And Loopholes","description":"A wry and humorous account of Nahal Tajadod's quest to get her Iranian passport renewed. She embarks on a bizarre and circuitous journey, meeting a colourful cast of characters along the way: two photographers who specialise in Islamic portraits, a forensic surgeon who trades in human organs and a grandmother who offers a live chicken to an implacable official.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTEHRAN, LIPSTICK AND LOOPHOLES  is a fascinating look at the constraints and contradictions of contemporary life in Tehran from the author's unique standpoint of being both a native of Iran and a foreigner.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542533431475,"sku":"9781844085149","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844085149-original.jpg?v=1755311830"},{"product_id":"the-yellow-wallpaper-and-selected-writings","title":"The Yellow Wallpaper And Selected Writings","description":"\u003cb\u003eINTRODUCED BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A great work of literature, the product of a questing, burning intellect' MAGGIE O'FARRELL \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Even if the themes being explored might seem irrelevant . . . that this is not the case' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I loved the unnerving, sarcastic tone, the creepy ending' \u003ci\u003ePARIS REVIEW \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e'\u003ci\u003eIt is stripped off - the paper - in great patches . . . The colour is repellent . . . In the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so - I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about . . . \u003c\/i\u003e'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased on the author's own experiences, \u003ci\u003eThe Yellow Wallpaper \u003c\/i\u003eis the chilling tale of a woman driven to the brink of insanity by the 'rest cure' prescribed after the birth of her child. Isolated in a crumbling colonial mansion, in a room with bars on the windows, the tortuous pattern of the yellow wallpaper winds its way into the recesses of her mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCharlotte Perkins Gilman was America's leading feminist intellectual of the early twentieth century. In addition to her masterpiece \u003ci\u003eThe Yellow Wallpaper\u003c\/i\u003e, this edition includes a selection of her best short fiction and extracts from her autobiography.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542536806579,"sku":"9781844085583","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844085583-original.jpg?v=1771467946"},{"product_id":"my-antonia","title":"My Antonia","description":"\u003cb\u003eWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. S. BYATT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers'\u003ci\u003e OBSERVER\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e' . . . a clear-eyed salute to the resilience of the human spirit and the innate hardiness of the immigrants' XAN BROOKS, \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Willa Cather was a wordsmith of enormous talent' ROBERT SLAYTON, \u003ci\u003eLOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood . . . His mind was full of her that day. He made me see her again, feel her presence, revived all my old affection for her'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy Antonia \u003c\/i\u003eis the unforgettable story of an immigrant woman's life on the Nebraska plains, seen through the eyes of her childhood friend, Jim Burden. The beautiful, free-spirited, wild-eyed girl captured Jim's imagination long ago and haunts him still, embodying for him the elemental spirit of the American frontier.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this powerful and astonishing novel, Willa Cather created one of the most winning yet thoroughly convincing heroines in American fiction.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542536872115,"sku":"9781844083749","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844083749-original.jpg?v=1756693338"},{"product_id":"wilderness-tips","title":"Wilderness Tips","description":"\u003cb\u003eBy the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Handmaid's Tale \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Testaments \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eA leathery bog-man transforms an old love affair; a sweet, gruesome gift is sent by the wife of an ex-lover; landscape paintings are haunted by the ghost of a young girl. This dazzling collection of ten short stories takes us into familiar Atwood territory to reveal the logic of irrational behaviour and the many textures lying beneath ordinary life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Atwood is a writer of importance, with a deep understanding of human behaviour, a beautiful understated style and, rarest of all, a broad scope' Marilyn French\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Funny, sharp and always incisive' \u003ci\u003eTime Out\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Everything Atwood forms in words has substance and weight' \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Margaret Atwood deserves an adjective - Atwoodian - in recognition of her \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003evirtuoso\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e wit and unmistakable style'\u003ci\u003e Chicago Tribune \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542538182835,"sku":"9781844086610","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844086610-original.jpg?v=1771412932"},{"product_id":"the-du-mauriers","title":"The Du Mauriers","description":"\u003cb\u003eFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF \u003ci\u003eREBECCA. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Miss du Maurier creates on the grand scale . . . observation, sympathy, courage, a sense of the romantic, are here' \u003ci\u003eOBSERVER \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'It is my pick of the Spring biographical material for sheer entertainment value . . . a gifted story teller' \u003ci\u003eKIRKUS REVIEWS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Daphne du Maurier has no equal' \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TELEGRAPH \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eWhen Daphne du Maurier wrote this book she was only thirty years old and had already established herself both as a biographer with the acclaimed \u003ci\u003eGerald: A Portrait\u003c\/i\u003e and as a novelist. Here, she further explores her fascinating family history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Du Mauriers\u003c\/i\u003e was written during a vintage period of her career, between two of her best-loved novels: \u003ci\u003eJamaica Inn \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Rebecca\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer aim was to write her family biography 'so that it reads like a novel' and it was due to du Maurier's remarkable imaginative gifts that she was able to breathe life into the characters and depict with affection and wit the relatives she never knew, including her grandfather, the famous Victorian artist and \u003ci\u003ePunch\u003c\/i\u003e cartoonist - and creator of \u003ci\u003eTrilby\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542546866355,"sku":"9781844080649","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844080649-original.jpg?v=1771413043"},{"product_id":"climbing-the-bookshelves","title":"Climbing The Bookshelves","description":"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'That politics was the most exciting of all the exciting things in the world I never doubted'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShirley Williams was born to politics. As well as being influenced by her mother, Vera Brittan, her father George Catlin, a leading political scientist, encouraged his daughter to have high ambitions for herself - including daring to climb the bookshelves in his library. Elected as MP for Hitchin in 1964, she was a member of the Wilson and Callaghan governments and was also the Secretary of State for Education.  As one of the 'Gang of Four' Shirley Williams famously broke away from the Labour Party to found the SDP in 1981 and later supported its merger with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats.  This is her story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eClimbing the Bookshelves\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Very few politicians are loved, but Shirley Williams was one' \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'She speaks human, which is a surprisingly rare political talent' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eDecent, sensible, honest and endearing, this book is Shirley Williams to a T' \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2022-02-03 )","offer_id":40300739199155,"sku":"9780349016313","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2010-10-07 )","offer_id":37542552076467,"sku":"9781844084753","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349016313-original.jpg?v=1771413093"},{"product_id":"117-days","title":"117 Days","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Her life and her death remain a beacon to all who love liberty' NELSON MANDELA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eAn unforgettable account of defiance against political terror by one of South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid activists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e'In prison you see only the moves of the enemy. Prison is the hardest place to fight a battle.'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e117 Days is Ruth First's personal account of her detention under the iniquitous '90-day' law of 1963. There was no warrant, no charge and no trial - only suspicion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis sparsely written and unique record tells of her experiences of solitary confinement, constant interrogation and instantaneous re-arrest on release - lightened by humorous portraits of governors, matrons, wardresses and interrogators, seen as the tools of the police state. This is the story of the war of nerves that ensued between First and her Special Branch captors-a work that remains a classic portrait of oppression and the dignity of the human spirit.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542554337459,"sku":"9781844086306","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844086306-original.jpg?v=1771413142"},{"product_id":"the-paris-wife","title":"The Paris Wife","description":"Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition to write. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley's marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a beloved son serves only to drive them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest's ferocious literary endeavours begin to bring him recognition - not least from a woman intent on making him her own . . .","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542554501299,"sku":"9781844086689","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844086689-original.jpg?v=1771413153"},{"product_id":"a-force-to-be-reckoned-with","title":"A Force To Be Reckoned With","description":"Everyone knows three things about the Women's Institute: that they spent the war making jam; the sensational Calendar Girls were WI; and, more recently, that slow-handclapping of Tony Blair. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut there's so much more to this remarkable Movement. Over 200,000 women in the UK belong to the WI and their membership is growing. They cross class and religion,include all ages -from students and metropolitan young professionals, such as the Shoreditch Sisters,to rural centenarians -with passions that range from supporting the 1920s Bastardy Bill (in response to a wartime legacy of illegitimate babies) to the current SOS for Honey Bees campaign.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was founded in 1915, not by worthy ladies in tweeds but by the feistiest women in the country, including suffragettes, academics and social crusaders who discovered the heady power of sisterhood, changing women's lives and their world in the process. Certainly its members boiled jam and sang ' Jerusalem ', but they also made history. This fascinating book reveals for the first time how they are - and always were - a force to be reckoned with.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542559056051,"sku":"9781844086603","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844086603-original.jpg?v=1771467962"},{"product_id":"the-baroness","title":"The Baroness","description":"A Rothschild by birth and a Baroness by marriage, beautiful, spirited Pannonica - known as Nica - seemed to have it all: children, a handsome husband and a trust fund. But in the early 1950s she heard a piece by the jazz legend Thelonious Monk. The music overtook her like a magic spell, and she abandoned her marriage to go and find him. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eArriving in New York, Nica was shunned by society but accepted by the musicians. They gave her friendship; she gave them material and emotional support. Her convertible Bentley was a familiar sight outside the clubs and she drank whisky from a hip flask disguised as a Bible. Her notoriety was sealed when drug-addicted saxophonist Charlie Parker died in her apartment. But her real love was reserved for Monk, whom she cared for until his death in 1982.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Baroness\u003c\/i\u003e traces Nica's extraordinary, thrilling journey - from England's stately homes to the battlefields of Africa, passing under the shadow of the Holocaust, and finally to the creative ferment of the New York jazz scene. Hannah Rothschild's search to solve the mystery of her rebellious great aunt draws on their long friendship and years of meticulous research and interviews. It is part musical odyssey, part dazzling love story.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542559219891,"sku":"9781844086054","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844086054-original.jpg?v=1771467974"},{"product_id":"the-enchanted-april","title":"The Enchanted April","description":"\u003cb\u003e'An enchanting novel, witty, touching and very perceptively written, which will sweep you into wisteria and sunshine' Santa Montefiore\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA discreet advertisement in 'The Times', addressed to 'Those who Apppreciate Wisteria and Sunshine...' is the impetus for a revelatory month for four very different women. High above the bay on the Italian Riviera stands San Salvatore, a mediaeval castle. Beckoned to this haven are Mrs. Wilkins, Mrs Arbuthnot, Mrs Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester, each quietly craving a respite. Lulled by the Mediterranean spirit, they gradually shed their skins and discover a harmony each of them has longed for but never known.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst published in 1922, this delightful novel is imbued with the descriptive power and light-hearted irreverence for which Elizabeth von Arnin is renowned.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Filled with hazy hills and fragrant flora, the novel is a dreamily sensuous description of the glories of Italian spring' Adam Nicolson, \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Elizabeth von Armin's most charming novel in every sense: it casts a spell...a sun-washed fairytale' \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542559318195,"sku":"9780860685173","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":37542559350963,"sku":"9781844087617","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844087617-original.jpg?v=1756521695"},{"product_id":"i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings","title":"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings","description":"\u003cb\u003eA beautiful new edition of  I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, the iconic, beloved and deeply moving first volume of Maya Angelou's autobiography. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The international classic and bestseller, Maya Angelou's memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eBARACK OBAMA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of my favourites' TINA KNOWLES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this first volume of her seven books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003ci\u003eI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings\u003c\/i\u003e liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity' \u003c\/b\u003eJAMES BALDWIN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds'\u003c\/b\u003e OPRAH WINFREY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was a real original. There is no duplicate' \u003c\/b\u003eTONI MORRISON\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'H\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eeartbreaking, beautiful and inspiring in equal measure . . . a  landmark work of literature' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eTELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2024-04-04 )","offer_id":42704403136691,"sku":"9780349017068","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 1998-04-21 )","offer_id":54846185832824,"sku":"9780860685111","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":37542561284275,"sku":"9780349005997","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349017068-original.jpg?v=1771467986"},{"product_id":"letter-to-my-daughter","title":"Letter To My Daughter","description":"\u003cb\u003eA collection of wisdom and life lessons, from the beloved and bestselling author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' \u003c\/b\u003eBARACK OBAMA\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eDedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, \u003ci\u003eLetter to my Daughter \u003c\/i\u003ereveals Maya Angelou's path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: it's part guidebook, part memoir, part poetry - and pure delight.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' \u003c\/b\u003eOPRAH WINFREY\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' \u003c\/b\u003eTONI MORRISON","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":37542562660531,"sku":"9781844086115","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9781844086115-original.jpg?v=1771467994"},{"product_id":"the-heart-of-a-woman","title":"The Heart Of A Woman","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the beloved and bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eI KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS\u003c\/i\u003e, this memoir chronicles Maya Angelou's involvement with the civil rights movement.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fourth volume of her enthralling autobiography finds Maya Angelou immersed in the world of black writers and artists in Harlem, working in the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":42704403169459,"sku":"9780349017082","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/3364\/4979\/products\/9780349017082-original.jpg?v=1771413291"}],"url":"https:\/\/store.virago.co.uk\/collections\/women-2.oembed","provider":"Virago Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}