LoveReading exists because books matter and reading changes lives. And that’s certainly true when we consider the incredible female voices that have been brought to the world by pioneering publisher Dame Carmen Callil.

Saddened by news of Carmen’s death at the age of 84 on 17th October 2022, we wanted to celebrate her life and work, and highlight some of the outstanding books published by Virago, the feminist publishing house she founded in 1973.

Many of us grew up being nourished by those green-spined, apple adorned Virago books. I still have my tattered copy of Margaret’s Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, read for A-Level English, and revisited many, many times. It was through Virago that I discovered a host of outstanding classics from around the world, among them Colette’s The Other Woman, Anaïs Nin’s Collages, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Zora Neale Thurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, and Phyllis Shand Allfrey’s The Orchid House. I’ll also be eternally grateful to Virago for publishing Angela Carter’s blazingly dissident, playfully magical stories, essays and novels. The same goes for the joyously subversive writings of the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.

Put simply, if I was in need of new reading material, I’d get myself one of those green-spined gems and know I was in good hands. Hands that could be unfailingly trusted to variously provoke thought, shock, delight, and change the way you see — and engage with — the world. More often than not, Virago books do all that at once. As suggested by the company’s name (a “virago” is a warrior-like woman of strength, with chauvinistic interpretations suggesting an angry, overbearing, argumentative woman; a siren, harpy, or nagging shrew), Virago writers have something new to say – so it is today, and so it’s always been.

Born in Melbourne in 1939, Carmen moved to London in 1960 after gaining a Bachelor of Arts in History and Literature. After working for a number of publishers and creating her own book publicity company, she founded Virago in 1973 after meeting the publishers of Spare Rib, the ground-breaking magazine of second-wave feminism.

Initially known as Spare Rib Books, Carmen’s vision for Virago was two-fold — to publish original works by women, and to reissue overlooked out-of-print classics by female writers, which later became the distinctive Virago Modern Classic imprint. In 1974, with just £1500 capital, and a loan of £10,000, Virago became self-sufficient, aided by writers agreeing to rather modest fees. For example, Angela Carter wrote the The Sadeian Woman for £25.

By 1982, with the brand firmly established, Carmen was approached by Chatto and Windus. She made the move to the publisher on condition that Virago remained, and so her visionary company became part of Chatto, Cape and Bodley Head. In 1996, Virago was sold to Little, Brown and, to quote the official website, the imprint remains “true to its original aims: to put women centre stage; to explore the untold stories of their lives; above all to champion women’s talent.” Given Virago’s publication of Sarah Waters, Ali Smith, Clare Kohda, and Gayl Jones, to name but a few current writers, there’s no question that the spark of Carmen’s founding spirit lives on.

See below for a selection of Virago books we love. From seminal reissued classics, to modern-day page-turners, they’re all guaranteed game-changers — the kind of books that stand the test of time and compel repeat reading. For more fabulous female voices, explore our Collection of Feminist-minded Fiction.