I’m over at Shiny New Books with a review of A Bite of the Apple – the new memoir by Lennie Goodings about Virago Books. It’s a fascinating and personal book – here’s the full review, and below is the opening of what I wrote.
There’s a certain variety of person who can always spot a bottle-green spine at a hundred paces, and has faced the agonising decision about whether to shelve their Virago Modern Classics together or in with the rest of their books. I, reader, am one such person (and they’re shelved together, for what it’s worth) – Virago Modern Classics has introduced me to any number of wonderful writers, and I have plenty left to read. And it’s chiefly the idea of finding out more about the VMCs that made me delighted when I heard that Lennie Goodings had written A Bite of the Apple.