Two new Virago collections

As readers of my other blog will know, it was my birthday recently, and I was secretly a little bit disappointed that I didn't get any VMCs to add to my collection! They were on several birthday suggestions lists but all of my friends and family opted for other books - not that I wasn't grateful for other wonderful reads! Anyway, I was extremely excited to recieve a belated birthday present from a friend and colleague of two Virago collections - A Virago keepsake to celebrate twenty years of publishing and Virago new writing for the 90s. The first contains excerpts and writings by Virago authros from their first twenty years of existence, including my favourite Nina Bawden, as well as Kathleen Dayus, Alice Miller, Grace Nichols, AS Byatt writing about Willa Cather and Lyndall P Hopkinson on Antonia White, and the second is a sample of contemporary authors including Ellen Douglas, Janette Turner Hospital and Lisa St Aubin De Teran. A big thank you to my friend Owen's mum who kindly spared them from her shelves.