Today is the birthday of one of my favourite writers, Virginia Woolf. I could quote Wikipedia, but I hope anyone reading me knows who she is……
I first read her work in the early 1980s, when I was exploring the vast range of women writers the feminist movement had introduced me to. “Mrs. Dalloway” was how I discovered her, and it was a revelation – I felt I had read nothing like this before and it opened new doors for me to all kinds of literature. During that decade I devoured all her works, letters, diaries, biographies about her, other Bloomsbury alumni – truly this was a major obsession.
“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.”
I revisited “To the Lighthouse” recently and found her prose as mesmerising as ever. She’s one of the greats and I shall always love her writing. Happy birthday Virginia!
Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings 
Jan 26, 2014 @ 16:23:20
I love Virginia Woolf, and don’t know when anybody’s birthday is, so thanks. Now if I’d come here yesterday I would have been current on birthdays~
Jan 26, 2014 @ 16:25:32
I don’t always remember 🙂 but I have a little email every day from the Writer’s Almanac which reminds me!
Jan 28, 2014 @ 18:18:37
Happy Birthday, Virginia! You are right – the birthdays are falling thick and fast this month. And Virginia and Colette make a very interesting comparison. Same era, same tendency towards experimentation, radically different characters!
Jan 28, 2014 @ 19:13:17
They couldn’t be more different, could they – one very cerebral, one very physical, but both such wonderful writers!