Formed to ‘break the silence’ for female voices and still as essential and influential as ever, fans and founding members pay tribute to the trailblazing feminist press
It was the early 70s, and in a tiny flat above a synagogue in Chelsea, London, decorated with lime-green paint, red tiles and an alternative cover for Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch on the wall, a group of women sat talking around a dining table.
The attic bedsit soon became the first office of the feminist publisher Virago, which turns 50 this month. It has published more than 4,000 titles and over 1,000 authors, including Sarah Waters, Pat Barker and Monica Ali, and brought the likes of Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou to British readers.
