Deborah Copaken Kogan on what inspired her novel, The Red Book
Deborah Copaken Kogan describes writing her entry for the real Harvard red book, twenty-five years after graduating – an experience that inspired her gloriously entertaining, wickedly funny and...
View ArticleThe Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier on ITV
If you missed the gorgeous feature-length adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel The Scapegoat on ITV1 on Sunday 9th September, be sure to catch up on ITV player. Written and directed by...
View ArticleEarly Praise for Susie Boyt’s The Small Hours
This November we publish The Small Hours, the new novel from critically acclaimed author, Susie Boyt. The author of four previous novels and the hugely popular memoir My Judy Garland Life (Virago,...
View ArticleTipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, our next Virago Book Club choice
‘Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl – I knew it at once! – that I had ever seen.’ For our...
View ArticleMonthly Highlights: September 2012
With the scent of autumn in the air and school children trudging back to school, September was the perfect month for Jane Robinson’s crackling and feisty book about the Women’s Institute, A Force to be...
View ArticleWhat we're reading this month
Here at Virago we like to discuss what books we're reading and are always amazed and delighted at the variety of themes and stories shared. Therefore we thought it would be great to share our...
View ArticleBlasphemy: The true, heartbreaking story of the woman sentenced to death over...
Picture the scene: Punjab, Pakistan, June 2009. The temperature is 45° and you have been out picking fruit for several hours. It's exhausting, sweaty work, but you have five children to feed. At...
View ArticleFifty Shades of Feminism needs you!
In March next year we will be publishing Fifty Shades of Feminism, an anthology edited by Lisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes and Susie Orbach, that will bring together fifty women, from politicians to...
View ArticleAn Exclusive Look at the Handwritten Diaries and Artefacts Behind These...
Those of you who follow us on Facebook and Twitter will already know how very excited we are to be publishing These Wonderful Rumours!, the newly discovered wartime diaries of a young school teacher,...
View ArticleGuest Post: Susie Boyt on her exquisite new novel, The Small Hours
Today we publish The Small Hours, the exquisite new novel from Susie Boyt, author of My Judy Garland Life. To mark publication we caught up with Susie to find out what inspired her to write her latest...
View ArticleA look inside These Wonderful Rumours! Out Now.
Today we are also extremely pleased to publish These Wonderful Rumours! the newly discovered, beautifully preserved and truly revelatory wartime diaries of May Smith, a young school teacher who lived...
View ArticleA look inside These Wonderful Rumours! Extract Two.
To celebrate publication of These Wonderful Rumours! the frank, funny and truly revelatory wartime diaries of May Smith, who lived in Derby during the Second World War, we are giving Virago readers an...
View ArticleA look inside These Wonderful Rumours! Extract Three.
To celebrate publication of These Wonderful Rumours! The recently discovered wartime diaries of May Smith, a young teacher who lived in Derby during the Second World War, we are giving Virago readers...
View ArticleA look inside These Wonderful Rumours! Extract Four.
To celebrate publication of These Wonderful Rumours! The recently discovered wartime diaries of May Smith, a young teacher who lived in Derby during the Second World War, we are giving Virago readers...
View ArticleMonthly Highlights: October 2012
October had a decidedly international flair here at Virago, with fascinating and hugely inspirational tales from places as diverse as Pakistan, China and Kabul appearing in both our Fiction and...
View ArticleDamage chosen for World Book Night 2013
We are delighted to announce that Josephine Hart's classic novel Damage has been chosen by the public as one of the books to be given away at next year's World Book Night. Damage – her first novel –...
View ArticleA look inside These Wonderful Rumours! Extract Five
We are sad to say that today will be our last look inside These Wonderful Rumours! We hope you have enjoyed this week of sneak peeks as much as we have. Stay tuned to @MaySmithsDiary on Twitter for...
View ArticleTipping the Velvet: the latest Virago Book Club choice
We are very pleased to be discussing Tipping the Velvet, our latest Virago Book Club choice. A book that has delighted and shocked in equal measure since its publication in 1998, Tipping the Velvet...
View ArticleWhat the Virago team is reading this month
Following on from last month's introduction to what we're reading comes another delightful and rather varied selection of what the Virago team have been reading this month… I have to confess that I...
View ArticleWIN a beautiful copy of Tipping the Velvet and DVD
To celebrate Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters as our Virago Book Club choice, we are giving three lucky winners the chance to win both a gorgeous copy of the Virago Modern Classic hardback edition as...
View ArticleLyndall Gordon on reissuing biographies of T.S. Eliot and Henry James
Lyndall Gordon talks to us about her new biographies of T.S Eliot and Henry James, which published this month. There’s no way to tell the whole truth about a life. If we think of our own lives, and...
View Article‘As comforting as coming in to a roaring log fire from the cold night outside’
Today we publish two classic novels by Angela Thirkell – High Rising and Wild Strawberries – as Virago Modern Classics. Here Virago editor Rowan Cope explains what makes them so special and why they...
View ArticleWINNER OF WRITING COMPETITION ANNOUNCED
In March next year we will be publishing Fifty Shades of Feminism, edited by Lisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes and Susie Orbach, and last month we gave you the opportunity to have your writing published...
View ArticleTipping the Velvet: Music Hall Mashers
At the heart of this month’s Virago book club pick is the magic and power of the musical hall male impersonator. In Tipping the Velvet cross-dressing enables our protagonists to explore their own...
View ArticleAlexander McCall Smith on Angela Thirkell
Alexander McCall Smith, bestselling author of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, explains his love for Angela Thirkell in this exclusive excerpt from his introduction to High Rising and Wild...
View ArticleDiscover Hilary Mantel's favourite VMCs
This year, Hilary Mantel made history by becoming the first woman to win the world’s most high-profile literary prize twice. Mantel’s second Booker has surely established her as one of the greatest...
View ArticleTracey Thorn's Christmas Treats
In February, we are publishing Tracey Thorn's brilliant memoir Bedsit Disco Queen – the funny, perceptive and candid story of her 30-year pop career full of the highs & lows of life in the...
View ArticleOur Virago picks for Christmas
As the Christmas holidays draw near, we all look for that perfect winter book that we can hunker down with and enjoy with mulled wine, mince pies and a warm fire. Here at Virago we've been thinking...
View ArticleLisa Appignanesi receives OBE in New Year Honours List
We were delighted to hear that Lisa Appignanesi has received an OBE for services to literature in the the New Year Honours List 2013. As well as her many books, of which Mad, Bad and Sad and All About...
View ArticleListen to an exclusive extract of The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
Today we are very excited to be publishing Charlotte Rogan's stunning debut novel The Lifeboat in paperback. It's a book that many have read, discussed and debated in great detail already, and in the...
View ArticleAn Angel at My Table is Radio 4's Classic Serial
Janet Frame’s An Angel at My Table is Radio 4’s Classic Serial. Hailed as ‘one of the classics of autobiography’ (Hilary Mantel) and ‘one of the great biographies written in the twentieth century’...
View ArticleAn exclusive essay by Charlotte Rogan, author of The Lifeboat
Anti-heroes January 2013 Does a great or even a good novel depend on a great or good protagonist, and by good I mean likeable and decent and mostly trying to do the right thing? And if the...
View ArticleBooks to beat the blues
Yes, it's that time of year when it becomes hard to open a paper or turn on the TV without hearing about how January is the most depressing time of year and how the long dark nights are dragging us...
View ArticleHow Tracey grew up and tried to be a pop star
Tracey Thorn’s wonderful memoir Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to be a Pop Star is publishing in February and already people are loving it. Caitlin Moran has called Tracey “The Alan...
View ArticleWIN a set of Rumer Godden books CLOSED
Black Narcissus, Kingfishers Catch Fire and Breakfast with the Nikolides are three beautiful novels by Rumer Godden which we publish with stunning new covers – the perfect set for any bookshelf. For...
View ArticleRumer Godden – a classic author loved by generations
Rumer Godden is the acclaimed author of over sixty works of fiction and non-fiction both for adults and children. Today we publish eight of her titles in stunning new jackets, perfect for the...
View ArticleWin a copy of An Honourable Man, the exhilarating new novel from Gillian Slovo
‘A triumph’ Guardian ‘Gripping’ Scotsman ‘A real corker’ Daily Mail ‘A beautifully drawn historical novel’ Metro To celebrate the publication of An Honourable Man, the exhilarating new novel from...
View ArticleIncredible praise for Tracey Thorn's memoir
Bedsit Disco Queen was published last week, and is a Sunday Times hardback non-fiction top ten bestseller. Reviews and critics have been unanimous in praise for her honest and funny autobiography....
View ArticleThe Passing of a Pope – Scandals Past and Present: an exclusive post from...
It is a bizarre feeling when, having been locked inside history writing a novel, you come up for air and find everyone talking about the place you have just been. I was boarding a plane back from...
View ArticleWIN a signed copy of Bedsit Disco Queen NOW CLOSED
'The Alan Bennett of pop memoirists. I loved her book so much I wanted to form a band too.' – Caitlin Moran Here at Virago we are so excited about Tracey Thorn's memoir that we are giving away a signed...
View ArticleWin tickets to see Tracey Thorn at Foyles on Weds 27th Feb!
This Wednesday we are thrilled to launch the first of our Virago Live Events in association with Foyles, kicking off with the one and only Tracey Thorn in conversation with Emma Kennedy, talking about...
View ArticleIn her Nineties, Ursula Holden Becomes a Virago Modern Classic
Tin Toys, an incredible novel by Ursula Holden, is a new addition to the Virago Modern Classics list. It has been gathering brilliant reviews, so we thought we’d share the introduction by Lisa...
View ArticleWIN! A signed copy of The Baroness
A Rothschild by birth and a Baroness by marriage. A rebel by choice. The Baroness traces Nica Rothschild's extraordinary, thrilling journey – from England's stately homes to the battlefields of Africa,...
View ArticleMemories of Rumer Godden, from Hachette UK CEO Tim Hely-Hutchinson
Hachette UK CEO Tim Hely-Hutchinson shares his memories of working with Rumer Godden. In April, the Virago Modern Classics will launch a list for younger readers with two of Rumer Godden's novels for...
View ArticleJAMAICA INN dramatisation on BBC1
Daphne du Maurier’s gothic romance, Jamaica Inn, has been greenlit by BBC1. Set in 1820 against the foreboding backdrop of the windswept Cornish moors, the three-part serial will be written by Emma...
View ArticleVirago publishes Catalan Classic, IN DIAMOND SQUARE by Merce Rodoreda
St George (in Catalan St Jordi) is the patron saint of Catalonia, as well as England. And in Spain, St Jordi's Day is quite a celebration, tying in elements of romance – St George being the chivalrous...
View ArticleWIN 5 limited edition copies of Blood & Beauty
Driven by power. Defined by blood. The Borgias. Stripping away the myths around this most infamous of families, Sarah Dunant's majestic new novel breathes life into the Borgias and celebrates the raw...
View ArticleRead the first chapter of The Woman Upstairs
Claire Messud's stunning new novel, The Woman Upstairs, is published today. In this first chapter we are introduced to Nora, who might just set the world on fire . . . How angry am I? You don’t want to...
View ArticleA Hundred Years of Barbara Pym!
This week marks the centenary of Barbara Pym’s birth. Her many fans include Alexander McCall Smith, Jilly Cooper, Shirley Hazzard, Philip Larkin and Anne Tyler. Here, Hazel Holt remembers and...
View ArticleOut next week – The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan
Next week we publish The Engagements – a glorious novel about love, marriage, commitment and betrayal from the author of 'Maine', J. Courtney Sullivan. Below you can read the first chapter in its...
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