Women of the Resistance: With Katherine McMahon and Sonia Purnell

By Marta Maretich Themes of resistance and history were in the air as authors Katherine McMahon and Sonia Purnell brought distinct takes on female resistance fighters of the First and Second World Wars to the Upper Wimpole Street Salon. McMahon’s novel, The Hour of Separation, tells the story of two generations of women working in …

Miranda Seymour: In Byron’s Wake

Miranda Seymour–biographer, novelist and critic–discussed her new book, In Byron’s Wake: The Turbulent Lives of Lord Byron’s Wife and Daughter, and her biography of Mary Shelley, which has just been reissued to mark the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. She spoke about the intersecting worlds–poetic and scientific– of three brilliant women. Byron’s daughter Ada …

Literary Mentorships and Friendships

by Sarah Glazer Our panel of three discussed how women writers influence, mentor, support and encourage one another. The panel included Jill Dawson, Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. Jill Dawson, bestselling novelist most recently of The Crime Writer, is the founder of Gold Dust, a writer-to-writer mentoring scheme. Emma Sweeney is a Gold Dust …

Lyndall Gordon on Writers as Outsiders

On October 18th, we hosted Lyndall Gordon on the eve of the publication of her new book: Outsiders, Five Women Writers Who Changed the World. Sarah Glazer talked to Lyndall about how she picks her subjects, how “issues in the life grab you,” the problem of the second paragraph, research and writing the “hot draft” …