Virago Modern Classics

Virago Modern Classics

In 1978 the Virago Modern Classics list was born, with their iconic green spines. The list’s aim was, and is, to celebrate women writers, to demonstrate the existence of a canon of women’s writing and to redefine the often narrow idea of a ‘classic’. Ali Smith has said that the VMC list is ‘simply one of the best and most essential things that has happened in publishing in our time’ and Margaret Drabble has said that the VMCs ‘have reshaped literary history and enriched the reading of us all’.