Virago is 40 - A Celebration

Jayne White reviews the new Virago anthology

I took part in a Twitter conversation recently where the participants were recalling their first Virago book. Mine was Frost in May by Antonia White, which I read when I was around thirteen or fourteen. If I were to ask you to recall the first book you'd read of any other publisher, could you do it? I know I couldn't. This may be something to do with clarity of the founders' aims restated for us in the foreword of this book: 'to put women centre stage; to explore the untold stories of their lives and histories; to break the silence around many women's experiences; to publish breathtaking new fiction alongside a rich list of rediscovered classics; and above all to champion women's talent.'

Virago is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of its founding today. As part of the celebration they've invited forty of their authors to produce a piece in a form of their choice, inspired by the number 40. I know this is quite a loose brief, but I was quite surprised at the variety of forms the authors chose. The contributions are ordered alphabetically by author surname and hence lead in with poems On Reaching Forty by Maya Angelou (originally published in 1976) and Virago at Forty: A Doggerel Toast by Lisa Appignanesi, both on the theme of women turning 40. As you might expect, this is a fairly common theme throughout the book, echoed in Joan Bakewell's contribution amongst others. Also worthy of note in this category is Claire Messud's memoir of her mother at forty.

Some authors hark back to 1940 in their stories. I particularly enjoyed the Nina Bawden piece Growing up in the Forties which is copyrighted 2012, the year of her death.  She reflects on the decade she began as an evacuee, in which she became an Oxford student, graduated, married and became pregnant.

Rather amusingly both Sandi Toksvig and Katharine Whitehorn are inspired by the phrase Forty Winks although the resulting pieces are very different.

Some authors have opted for lists. Sarah Churchwell gives us a list of forty words from the Jazz age including 'post-feminist', 'motherfucker', 'subprime' and 'transvestite'. Frances Osborne's Forty Steps is a list of words and phrases associated with growing up. Naomi Wolf lists My Forty Favourite People, Books and Organizations in the Category of "Adavancing Liberty for Women" which is a list of names that will trigger memories and thoughts for most of us. Charlotte Rogan contributes Subtext: Forty Footnotes for a Manifesto which is the most openly political piece in this collection. I also particularly liked Sarah Waters' Literary Countdown where she lists quotations from women writers containing the numbers 1-40 for us to try to identify. Answers are given further on so we're not left in the dark.

Another approach taken by Margaret Atwood in her essay Forty Years Ago and Forty Years Ahead and Yasmin Hai in her short story Safa@40 is to explore the significance of the number forty in religious and secular writings. Atwood then goes on to draw what for me are the most interesting themes in the book, the social changes of the last 40 years and the authors' appreciation of and affection for Virago. A number of the other authors pick up on this. Rachel Cooke writes an essay on Rebecca West, the author of Virago's fortieth book. Elaine Showalter's essay starts with an image of herself at 40, but the essay is very much about her history with Virago. Donna Coonan is another contributor who gives us a game with short biographies of Virago authors as they were at 40.

Ordinarily at this point in a review, you'd expect to be reading my thoughts on whether or not you should buy the book. However, this book is freely available in ebook format so buying it isn't an issue. Although the pieces contained in the book are not necessarily examples of each author's most impressive works, there is so much variety that there's definitely something for everyone. I'm excited by the idea of a publisher launching a book like this in the first place. Ordinarily a book is published to make money, but this one won't. This is part celebration, part promotion, and a definite talking point for any woman who reads, writes, or publishes.

I'd encourage anyone with an interest in women's fiction to download this book, read it quickly and participate in the online conversations around Virago's 40th birthday. There's been a lot of talk about equality in literature of late. If we've got Hilary Mantel hoovering up prizes and women outnumbering men on the latest Granta list, do we need a Women's Prize?  On the other hand there's the issue around the proportions of women reviewers/reviewed in our most influential publications. Margaret Atwood speculates about what the next 40 years might bring, and perhaps we might like to think about that too.

Follow Jayne on Twitter, @ElethaWhite