Virago’s first book was Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village (1975), a social history by Mary Chamberlain about impoverished women in a remote town. “It is an unlovely and aggressive name,” author Anthony Burgess famously sneered in The Observer in 1979, “even for a militant feminist organisation.”īut hundreds of women - and some men, among them future Knopf publisher Sonny Mehta - were eager to lend a hand to the venture with contacts, introductions, financing and design advice. Boycott chose the name - a virago is defined both as a strong, heroic woman and as a harpy - and it fit the mission, and perhaps also Callil’s persona. It was 1973 and she had been helping to publicise Adam’s Rib, a feminist magazine started by two journalists, Marsha Rowe, who like her was Australian-born, and Rosie Boycott, when one night in a pub she had what she called a “lightbulb” moment and decided to form a mainstream company that would publish books by and for women. Virago began in Callil’s apartment, an attic bedsit off the King’s Road. Rosie Boycott chose the name - a virago is defined both as a strong, heroic woman and as a harpy - and it fit the mission, and perhaps also Callil’s persona
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