大象传媒

1: They were founded in the swinging but sexist 1970s

was launched in 1973 by Carmen Callil, Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe, initially working from Callil’s house in Chelsea before migrating to offices in then- tantalisingly bohemian Soho.

Carmen Callil was a PR supremo while Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe worked on the pioneering feminist magazine .

Together, they wanted to showcase the most exciting contemporary women writers, challenge the narrow confines of pale, male and stale literary tradition and bring some of the revolutionary change that was sweeping through the rest of society, “to break a silence, to make women's voices heard, to tell women's stories,” as Callil has written.

Virago’s first book, , was published in collaboration with Quartet Books in 1973; in 1977 its first publication as an independent company was .

Boycott and Rowe moved on and Virago welcomed Ursula Owen, Harriet Spicer and Lennie Goodings to its staff.

2: You wouldn’t mess with a virago

Virago was named in a spirit of rebellion, subversion and wit. Dictionary definitions of a virago are amusingly salty: a virago is a “domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman”, a “heroic war-like woman” and according to the thesaurus, a “biddy, bitch, dragon, fire-eater, fury, harpy, harridan, hussy, muckraker, scold, she-devil, siren, spitfire, termagant, tigress, virago, vituperator, vixen, wench.”

These were exactly the kinds of epithets hurled, unironically, at women who sought to disrupt the established order; Virago pre-empted and reclaimed the insults with power and humour.

It added fuel to the flames with its bitten-apple logo which evoked Eve in the Bible: either history’s first troublemaking female tempting man and plunging humanity into chaos and sin; or a pioneer of curiosity, advancing human understanding by tasting from the Tree of Knowledge.

3: They created design classics

Like the zippy orange spines of Penguin paperbacks, the Edwardian green covers of the line inspire collector-mania among readers.

Virago Modern Classics line launched in 1978, dedicated to rediscovering neglected women writers. Its inaugural publication was the convent-set coming of age tale , while the iconic green spines were chosen because of their stately look and because they broke away from gender conventions of blue-for-boys or pink-for-girls.

On the series’ thirtieth birthday Virago celebrated women designers as well as women writers, producing hardback editions of novels by Barbara Pym, Jacqueline Susann, Muriel Spark and Angela Carter, amongst others, paired with cover designs by textile designers including , and .

4: They continue the tradition of women travellers

Virago novelist Stella Duffy’s most recent book, , is a historical novel set in the slums of London in the early 20th century, seen through the friendship of three boys.

London Lies Beneath is not a classic ‘Virago story’ in the way Duffy’s novels and its sequel were – they told the scandalous story of a Byzantine prostitute’s rise to become Empress – but she follows a Virago tradition of women travellers in which fans of the new novel can follow as they read, starting at Trafalgar Square and ending at Nunhead Cemetery.

The 1986-established Virago Travellers series launched with by Isabella Bird and and later reissued writing by travellers including Gertrude Bell and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

Stella Duffy’s walk may not be quite so world-striding, but it eschews the privilege and Empire-era over-confidence which has sullied the reputations of some of the ‘great’ women adventurers of yesteryear.

5: They’ve inspired great TV

One of the jewels in Virago’s crown is the historical novelist Sarah Waters, whose fiction uncovers the hidden lives of women: her first novel, , which will celebrate its 20th anniversary of publication next year, revealed Victorian England’s cross-dressing lesbian music-hall counterculture.

As well as having won or been nominated for pretty much every major literary prize in the country, Waters has had 100% of her novels adapted for film or TV. The Victorian dramas Tipping the Velvet and and the wartime-set have all been adapted for the 大象传媒 and the Victorian prison mystery was adapted for ITV.

Waters’ other novels and are being considered for film adaptations by Potboiler Productions – which itself sounds like a Sarah Waters novel.

6: They’ve stayed at the political cutting edge

Virago published the major feminist thinkers of the 1970s and 1980s, including Kate Millett, poet Adrienne Rich, Eva Figes, Lynne Segal, Sheila Rowbotham, Beatrix Campbell and Elaine Showalter.

They have moved with the times: from 2010 they published by Natasha Walter, as well as the anthology , a reaction to the success of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

And eighteen months ago the 大象传媒 broadcaster and Virago author Sandi Toksvig jumped directly into the political fray, co-founding the to campaign for a more equal society.

is on 大象传媒 Four on Monday 31 October 2016, 22:00.