Ursula Owens: ‘Women’s territory was fundamentally confined to the domestic’

IT was 1983 and book editor Ursula Owen read a review of an American title called I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. It had been published in 1969 and become a bestseller in the USA, but nobody had thought it could be a hit in Europe.

On her next trip to New York, Ursula found a copy, read it, and loved it. She paid publishers Random House £1,000 and her firm, Virago, had the rights to the work.

The story of how Angelou came to be known to so many more readers – and the publishing house behind it – is part of Ursula’s story, told in her memoir, Single Journey Only.

The Dartmouth Park-based publisher, editor and author was born in 1937. As a Jewish family in Germany, their safety was in danger: they managed to escape, and settled in England.

Her story takes the reader through Oxford University as a medical student, into the 60s as a social worker, and then playing a key role in setting up the wildly successful Virago imprint, a feminist publishing house that it is safe to say changed the face of British publishing and has become a key platform for considering feminist philosophy, equality and simply great books written by women.

“When we published, we flew Maya over,” she recalls. “I’d never met this six-foot tall, deep-voiced woman with the amazing chuckle before.

“I took her for lunch in St Martin’s Lane. She was warm and charming. She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Ursula, you bought my book and I will stay with Virago for ever’.”

The meal had another memorable moment: Ursula got a piece of steak stuck in her throat and started choking. Maya gave her a hard bang on the back and she recovered.

They weren’t prepared for the success they had on their hands at first – but soon were enjoying huge sales and glowing in the many talks Maya held around London promoting her work.

“We had parties, she cooked for us, we danced with her, she held centre stage where ever she went,” Ursula adds.

“My three-year-old granddaughter attended a big party at the Dorchester for her. Charlotte had never seen anyone like this tall, charismatic black woman, singing and dancing and she followed her around all evening. She now has a daughter called Maya.”

Maya, globally renowned as she was, is just one of the many writers whose works have changed the world that Virago are behind.

And on page two of every book printed is a mission statement: “Virago is a feminist publishing company. It is only when women start to organise in large numbers that we become a political force, and begin to move towards the possibility of a truly democratic society in which every human being can be brave, responsible, thinking and diligent…”

Ursula’s story begins with her family fleeing the Nazis. Her mother Emma gave birth to her in Oxford, where they had relatives, as friends had advised it would be wise for Ursula to have a UK passport in light of the growing threat. Emma and her baby returned to Germany for a brief time. Her family’s metal firm was Aryanised and they were given exit papers in July 1938.

She covers settling in England and issues over assimilation and her mother’s ill health, which haunted Ursula for many years. Her mother suffered from mental illness, and Ursula was convinced she too would fall ill. “The possibility I would end up like my mother was never far from my mind,” she writes.

“The same old thoughts – the same freckles on my face and arms, the same dark hair, brown eyes. I was exasperated by her but I understood her. Perhaps most frightening was that I so rarely remembered my mother being happy or even relaxed.”

As Ursula grew up, the world she stepped into would shape her later work at Virago.

Discussing her experiences at medical school, she writes: “This was 50s Britain and the profession was very much at home in a society where deference ran deep – towards traditional institutions, in hierarchical structures, in the young to their elders, the poor to the rich, women to men. In Oxford I was very much a woman in a man’s world.”

Ursula adds how she was not aware of it at the time, stating “the obvious lack of freedoms and choices for women compared to men… I didn’t talk about it with my friends and certainly did not rail against it.

“At some level I accepted my future would be guided by the man I married – I took it for granted that I would marry – than by any choices I make about my own life.”

For Ursula and her peers, this was a male-dominated world and it was ingrained in her to be hardly noticeable. She writes: “It is hard to convey quite how marginal women felt in the 50s. It was rarely remarked on that there were few women in Parliament or in high positions in medicine, law or company boards.

“Women’s territory was still fundamentally confined to the domestic.,” she writes.

Studying medicine at Oxford got her a degree but also made her realise she did not want to be a doctor. She was worried about the process of diagnosing others – partly due, she believes, to her mother’s health – and she found her natural interest lay in the social sciences.

After Oxford, she headed to London and Bedford College to study social work. She would then take up a role as a social worker in Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds as a 24-year-old. A lot of learning on the job was required, but she was determined and talented.

“I began to learn a bit more about how to support people and help them to help themselves in their difficult lives.

“The patient population was largely working-class, so most of the people I saw had to deal with poverty as well as mental fragility. I became absorbed in the causes and effects of mental illness, its connection with social realities and inherited traits.”

In the 1970s, Ursula began editing book manuscripts. In 1973, publisher Carmen Callil had decided the time was right for a house aimed at women with the founders of feminist magazine Spare Rib.

Ursula joined in 1974, became a founding director and worked at the title for the next 17 years.

Later, she would be the chief executive of Index On Censorship, found the Free Word Centre and create cultural policies for the Labour Party.

Her life has been steeped in politics, equality, literature: she has played a role in, and observed, how British society had changed in a generation – and notes what still needs to be done to create a more equal world.

• Single Journey Only. By Ursula Owen, Salt Publishing, £12.99