One or two of you were interested in finding out who was interviewing whom (or whom who, or something. Colin?) in the Virago book Writing Lives: Conversations Between Women Writers (ed. Mary Chamberlain) which I mentioned yesterday. What am I here for but to oblige? The ‘new’ Virago writers (bearing in mind this was published in 1988) interview the ‘old’ Virago writers – some of these appeared elsewhere, but nevertheless they fit well in with the others. Lots of names I don’t recognise, I confess, but avenues to explore…
Writers in the first column are interviewees; in the second, interviewers.
Maya Angelou – Rosa Guy
Natalya Baranskaya – Pieta Monks
Marjorie Barnard – Zoe Fairbairns
Dora Birtles – Joyce Nicholson
Kathleen Dayus – Mary Chamberlain
Elizabeth Hardwick – Helen McNeil
Dorothy Hewett – Drusilla Modjeska
Yvonne Kapp – Sally Alexander
Molly Keane – Polly Devlin
Mary Lavin – Eavan Boland
Rosamund Lehmann – Janet Watts
Paule Marshall – Mary Helen Washington
Naomi Mitchison – Alison Hennegan
Grace Paley – Cora Kaplan
Angela Rodaway – Carolyn Steedman
Dora Russell – Cathy Porter
Phyllis Shand Allfrey – Polly Pattullo
Mary Stott – Liz Heron
Eudora Welty – Hermione Lee
Rebecca West – Marina Warner
Natalya Baranskaya – Pieta Monks
Marjorie Barnard – Zoe Fairbairns
Dora Birtles – Joyce Nicholson
Kathleen Dayus – Mary Chamberlain
Elizabeth Hardwick – Helen McNeil
Dorothy Hewett – Drusilla Modjeska
Yvonne Kapp – Sally Alexander
Molly Keane – Polly Devlin
Mary Lavin – Eavan Boland
Rosamund Lehmann – Janet Watts
Paule Marshall – Mary Helen Washington
Naomi Mitchison – Alison Hennegan
Grace Paley – Cora Kaplan
Angela Rodaway – Carolyn Steedman
Dora Russell – Cathy Porter
Phyllis Shand Allfrey – Polly Pattullo
Mary Stott – Liz Heron
Eudora Welty – Hermione Lee
Rebecca West – Marina Warner
Sounds wonderful. Maybe when you read it you could give us some of your favourite excerpts, Simon?? I'd be especially interested in reading something of what Rosamond Lehmann had to say…hint, hint…
This sounds really, really interesting. I like Rachel would love to hear some of the best bits so do feature them. You do find some gems don't you?
I bet Marina Warner was fair quaking in her boots being faced with Rebecca West!
Oooh! Alison Hennegan was my third year supervisor! Very nice lady, albeit constantly in a state of dismayed confusion that me and Carly 'didn't have the Latin'… :-)
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