Alison Fell

Eleventh-century Japanese stable boy Oyu is charged with assisting the Lady Onogoro, a poet and concubine of General Motosuke, by telling her erotic stories while she makes love with the general

The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro

Michele Roberts

Ann Oosthuizen

Stef Pixner

Tina Reid

First published in 1978, at a time when the brand new word ?sexism? raised hoots of derision, this breakthrough collection mounted a timely and bracing challenge to the white male ownership of the poetic tradition. Produced by a group of feminist writers including Michele Roberts and Alison Fell, ?Licking the Bed Clean? showcases poems that are passionate, perceptive, sometimes hilarious, and crackling with subversive energy, while the original introduction candidly explores questions of art, politics, self-doubt, and the collective process. A breath of fresh air in a Facebook era of branding, marketing and rampant individualism, this collectors' item provides a lasting and invaluable insight into women's struggle to find an authentic voice.

Licking the Bed Clean : five feminist poets

"The concept of motherhood emerges strongly in the writings of Simone de Beauvoir, Violette Leduc and Annie Ernaux, whose work is examined here in the light of current debates about women's reproductive function and the longstanding glorification of the mere au foyer in France, driven by fear of a falling population. In this interdisciplinary study of twentieth-century French women's writing, Fell uncovers tensions at the heart of the literary critique. She shows these authors challenging the patriarchal view of motherhood as the sole justification for a woman's existence while at the same time confronting the conflict inherent in their relationship with their own mothers. A survey of theoretical and historical material demonstrates vividly that the changing concept of motherhood remains a problematic and highly contentious issue for French feminists, whether writing in 1940 or 1999."

Liberty, Equality, Maternity

"Broom is in her 50s. An artist and theatre set designer, she is spending Christmas in the Alps working on a commission for an opera in Leipzig. Five years before, she had fallen passionately in love with the flawed but lovable Al. But their fiery and complex relationship was tragically cut short when Al was involved in an accident from which he didn't recover. After five years of mourning (and celibacy) Broom is ready to engage with the world again - and it is here, in the Alps, that she meets Micky Flint, a slick, attractive 30-something advertising executive who is working on a new pitch. ntercut with this story is that of Lockhart, with whom Broom once had an affair. Returning for Christmas after many years to the family estate on the remote Scottish island of Callasay, he too is confronting his past: the younger brother he abandoned to the austerity of the island and who was instrumental in his love affair with Broom; and their autocratic father to whom Lockhart must break some painful family news. s Broom looks back on past lovers and how her life has unfurled, she becomes strangely drawn to Micky, her polar opposite. And for their own very different reasons an intimacy de

Tricks of the Light

In a small holiday village on the coast of Crete, Ingrid Laurie is researching a biography of the neglected linguist Alice Kober, who laid the basis for the decipherment of the ancient Cretan script Linear B, but died too young to reap the rewards of her work. While Ingrid struggles to decipher the life of the enigmatic scholar, on the outskirts of

The Element -inth in Greek

An interdisciplinary study of twentieth-century French women's writing, this book uncovers tensions at the heart of the literary critique. It presents a survey of theoretical and historical material demonstrating that the changing concept of motherhood remains a problematic and contentious issue for French feminists.

Liberty, Equality, Maternity in Beauvoir, Leduc and Ernaux

Maggie Andrews

Lucy Noakes

June Purvis

This lively collection of essays showcases recent research into the impact of the conflict on British women during the First World War and since. Looking outside of the familiar representations of wartime women as nurses, munitionettes, and land girls, it introduces the reader to lesser-known aspects of women’s war experience, including female composers’ musical responses to the war, changes in the culture of women’s mourning dress, and the complex relationships between war, motherhood, and politics. Written during the war’s centenary, the chapters also consider the gendered nature of war memory in Britain, exploring the emotional legacies of the conflict today, and the place of women’s wartime stories on the contemporary stage. The collection brings together work by emerging and established scholars contributing to the shared project of rewriting British women’s history of the First World War. It is an essential text for anyone researching or studying this history. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women’s History Review.

Alison Fell

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