“I started Virago to break a silence, to make women’s voices heard, to tell women’s stories, my story and theirs,”

Happy Heavenly Birthday Carmen 🌹 We miss you ❤️ Born 1938 #Virago #CarmenCallil #Icon #Feminists #HappyBirthday #Author #Publisher

“We’re living with a government that’s tuned in only to how great the British empire was. But the British empire was seriously un-great for 99.9 per cent of the people they invaded. It was terrible!” Excerpt from an interview with the FT 🗞️

In 2017, Queen Elizabeth II made Carmen a dame, the female equivalent of a knighthood, for her “services to literature.”

Carmen speaking at a 2020 event by Extinction Rebellion sub-group Writers Rebel targeting the thinktanks of 55 Tufton Street, London. 📸:Rachel Cooke #extinctionrebellion #writersrebellion

Carmen on her feminism, she said was ‘concentrated on poltroonish men telling you what to do’. #feminism #feminist #carmencallil #femalerolemodels #publishing #virago #femaleempowerment

Carmen was a judge on the 2011 Man Booker International Prize, but resigned in protest when her fellow judges selected Philip Roth. #carmencallil #virago #publishing #bookerprize #author

Happy Heavenly Birthday Carmen, we miss you every day - Love your friends and family 🩷 Born today, 1938

Carmen went to the same convent school as Germaine Greer – she described the atmosphere as “rules, censorship and silence, and above all a sense of disapproval waiting to pounce on those rare times when you felt most entirely yourself” #virago #publisher #author #feminism

Love this! ❤️

Carmen set out to make a difference, and she did. She was a witty but a formidable woman with a passion for literature who sought to change the world through books.📚 #feminist #virago #publisher #author #humanrightsactivist #carmencallil

In 1960, Carmen arrived in Britain. The ensuing decade in London was, as the title of Sarah Maitland’s memoir published by Virago in 1988 put it, Very Heaven. Jobs were easy to come by and soon Callil was working in publishing, one of an army of young female publicists.

As an aside, we were very proud that the late @CarmenCallil chose to do an online event with us on the publication of her family history, Oh Happy Day, during lockdown... She is much missed in the book and publishing community. @ViragoBooks #IndieBookshopWeek @booksaremybag

Carmen Callil was instantly identifiable in the book world as simply “Carmen”, a formidable personality carving a vivid swathe through a staid, male-dominated community.

“I have actually enjoyed not being married very much,” Carmen told the Financial Times in 2020. “I’ve had such fun. You get to know all sorts of different people. And you can work. I loved work.” #carmencallil

So much love today ❤️

Here's @CarmenCallil : the movie of the unveiling. What a way to honour a great woman.

“My real pathway was my mother and father, both great readers; I grew up surrounded by books.” ~ Carmen Callil

She thought “Maurice Guest” was a masterpiece. That it failed to sell when it first came out in 1908, and failed again when she republished it in 1981, only reinforced her conviction that here was a cause worth mounting the barricades for!

Carmen championed hundreds, if not thousands, of women writers. But if she could take just one book with her, she told the bbc radio perennial “Desert Island Discs” in 1992, it would be “Maurice Guest” by Henry Handel Richardson, whose real name was Ethel 📚

Remembering our dearest Carmen with this picture taken by Polly Borland ❤️ #carmencallil #virago #writerscommunity