#113: Lennie Goodings, chair of Virago Press

<p>Simon and Rachel speak with Lennie Goodings, chair of <a href="https://www.virago.co.uk/">Virago Press</a>. Born in Canada, Lennie came to Britain in the 1970s and joined Virago as a publicist in 1978. In subsequent roles—first in marketing, then as publisher—Lennie has worked with authors including Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Sarah Waters and Linda Grant. She won the <em>Bookseller</em>'s Industry Award for Editor and Imprint of the Year in 2010, a Lifetime's Achievement Award at the Women of the World festival in 2018 and was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020. Her book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-bite-of-the-apple-9780198828754?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;">"A Bite of the Apple"</a>, a memoir-cum-history of Virago, was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. We talked to Lennie about the early years of her career, the intimacy of editing a writer's work and how the business of feminist publishing has evolved.</p> <p>You can find us online at <a href="https://www.alwaystakenotes.com/">alwaystakenotes.com</a>, on Twitter @takenotesalways, and on Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/alwaystakenotes">facebook.com/alwaystakenotes</a>. Our crowdfunding page is <a href="https://www.patreon.com/alwaystakenotes">patreon.com/alwaystakenotes</a>. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.</p>