Episode 197 is dedicated to our late friend Carmen Callil, the founder of Virago, an author in her own right and, on a couple of memorable occasions, a former guest on Backlisted (episode 80 and episode 102).

Joining us are the writer Rachel Cooke and critic and editor Lucy Scholes. Under discussion: The True History of the First Mrs Meredith and Other Lesser Lives by Diane Johnson, first published in 1972 and reissued in 2020 by New York Review Books. Is this imaginative, funny, heartfelt, headstrong book a novel, a biography, an alternative history, a feminist polemic, a work of literary criticism or something else entirely? To which the answer is a far-from-straightforward: Yes. We hope you enjoy this conversation - and a unique book - as much as we did.

Books mentioned
Diane Johnson - The True History of the First Mrs Meredith and Other Lesser Lives; Lorna Mott Comes Home; Flyover Lives; Lulu in Marrakech; L’Affaire; Le Mariage; Le Divorce; Lying Low; The Shadow Knows
Carmen Callil - Bad Faith: A History of Family and Fatherland; Oh Happy Day: Those Times and These Times
Rachel Cooke - The Virago Book of Friendship; Kitchen Person: Notes on Cooking and Eating; Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties
Lucy Scholes - A Different Sound: Stories by Mid-Century Women Writers
Rosamond Lehmann - Dusty Answer
Stevie Smith - Novel on Yellow Paper
Phyllis Rose - Parallel Lives
Richard Holmes - Footsteps

Other links
Lucy Scholes’ column and podcast - Re-Covered archive (Paris Review) and Ourshelves podcast (Virago Books)