A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas, by Virginia Woolf (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)

"When one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable…

"When one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet . . . some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor . . ."

Virginia Woolf's two eloquent lectures on sexual equality, or rather educational inequalities, the first - from which the above quote is taken - lyrical and witty, the second impassioned and angry, are placed side by side in this thought provoking volume, together with a stylish and lucid introduction by Hermione Lee. The cover photograph of a fragile, hesitant looking Woolf contrasts strikingly with the confident, polished polemic to be found inside.

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Arminta Wallace

Arminta Wallace

Arminta Wallace is a former Irish Times journalist