Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists: Shelagh Delaney • Edna O’Brien • Lynne Reid Banks • Charlotte Bingham • Nell Dunn • Virginia Ironside • Margaret Forster

by Celia Brayfield

In London in 1958 a play by a 19-year-old redefined women's writing in Britain. It also began a movement that would change women's lives forever. The play was A Taste of Honey and the author, Shelagh Delaney, was the first of a succession of very young women who wrote about their lives with an honesty that dazzled the world. They rebelled against sexism, inequality and prejudice and in doing so rejected masculine definitions of what writing and a writer should be. After Delaney came Edna O'Brien, Lynne Reid Banks, Virginia Ironside, Charlotte Bingham, Margaret Forster and Nell Dunn, each challenging traditional concepts of womanhood in novels, films, television, essays and journalism.

Not since the Brontës have a group of young women been so determined to tell the truth about what it is like to be a girl and proposed new ways to live and love in the future.

Acclaimed author, Celia Brayfield, tells their exceptional story here, for the first time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Feminism, Writing, Cultural Studies, History, Gender

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 17, 2019

About the author

Celia Brayfield has written four non-fiction books and nine novels of which Mister Fabulous and Friends is currently in development for television. Her novel Heartswap was optioned by Paramount and Harvest for Chrysalis Films. Celia is currently working on a series of historical novels. She also teaches Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and Brunel University.

After attending St Paul's Girls' School in London, Celia went to Grenoble University in France to study French Language and Literature, before moving into journalism at The Times. She has one daughter and lives in Oxfordshire.

Reviews

[Kirsty Darbyshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent and very interesting read. The only writer featured in the book who I've read a lot of before was Margaret Forster, but the book left me wanting to read books by all the others. I read a couple of works by some of the others before but mostly long ago. This opened my eyes as to the circumstances in which these female writers were first publishing in the later 1950s and 1960s and I think I'll read their books in a new light in the future. This book was a little plagued by typos (or more like hurried editing I suspect) in places but that didn't detract from the overall package. Great research and, on the whole, very well written.

[Katarína · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much. Not only it introduces great feminist authors from Britain, it also gives a little insight into the time period when they were writing their books. I bought it because of the cover and loved it because of the content.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books looks at the lives and works of some of the first female writers who broke the mould when writing about women, detailing what life was like for women in the 50s and 60s.

The book first introduces you to the "Rebel Writers" then breaks down their work into social categories, like class, love, sex, marriage etc. providing quotes from their books and plays and the reception they received. It then looks at their lives after their initial, ground-breaking works.

This as an extremely interesting read, however I hadn't realised that it was going to go so deeply into the women in their story's rather than the writers themselves. While I knew that back then, women were expected to get married, serve their husband and have children, becoming a compliant housewife. I couldn't believe that a woman couldn't open a bank account on her own!!! The way some of the reporters and critics spoke about the writers in this book was unreal, at times it felt like I was reading about a dystopian world.

At times, I felt the book did drag a little, it read like a really long essay, especially when the Celia Brayfield goes into critiquing their works. But, it was still fascinating to read about and a real eye-opener to how lucky we are to have had women who stood up and fought for our rights.

[Lisa Bentley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rebel Writers is a great book that looks at the lives of important feminist writers and the impact that they had. It focuses on Shelagh Delany, Edna O’Brien, Lynne Reid-Banks, Charlotte Billingham, Nell Dun, Virginia Ironside, Margaret Forster and throws in a little bit about Francoise Sagan to boot.

What is great about Rebel Writers is that if you don’t know who some of the writers are (and I must admit that there were three on the above list that I didn’t know anything about) you come away at the end of the book knowing about them and more importantly understanding the cultural impact that they had. Even more interesting is the social history discussed in this novel and the way the patriarchy really tried to oppress these young ladies in a multitude of ways. Their feisty nature and the changing world around them allowed them to grow and retain their dignity if not necessarily always giving them equal rights.

Whether read for entertainment purposes or as an academic text Celia Brayfield’s look at these writers is fascinating and definitely worth a read.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book and learnt so much about these eight female writers and the awful conditions they had to deal with just because the were women. We should be shouting their praises not just because they were second wave feminists but also because most of them brought the lives of ordinary working people to the attention of readers.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a playwright and run an all-female theatre company, so I'm pretty much the target audience for the book. The women included in the book are endlessly fascinating and inspiring, but this book does not do them justice, and reads more like a high school essay.

Much of the book is taken up by repeatedly recounting the plots of the various books and plays discussed. The literary criticism is not very in depth, and I found parts of it problematic or poorly researched. A chapter on sex claims that women in the sexual revolution of the 1960s didn't have birth control (when the entire reason the sexual revolution happened was due to the invention of the birth control pill), and says of the 1960s, "the concept of sexual consent was still half a century away." Um, half a century on from the 1960s is 2010. Does this author really believe the concept of consent didn't exist until TWO THOUSAND AND TEN????


There's a chapter on race, and I understand that a book where each chapter is dedicated to a social issue would look weird if it didn't include race, but the fundamental problem here is that all the writers chosen are white, and only two of them wrote included a non-white character. This chapter is very short and perfunctory. The chapter on race is essentially some very basic information on racial tensions in the 1960s followed by a bunch of super racist quotes from the writers the book exists to champion, handwaved with "but these writers were just reflecting the attitudes of the era."

This book has a real problem with class bias. Despite repeatedly insisting that all these female writers basically felt and suffered the same despite the huge disparity in background and opportunity, Brayfield is hugely critical and dismissive of the working class writers listed, and ragingly obsequious towards the posh ones. The difference in attitude is startling.

The first writer profiled is Shelagh Delaney, and Brayfield pretty much flat out calls her a liar (by making much of the fact that despite the now-famous "a fortnight ago I had no idea theatre existed" letter 19yr old Delaney wrote to Joan Littlewood, she had in fact visited a local theatre when she was 16); undermines her writing talent; implies that she only included teen sex, illegitimate pregnancy and gay characters in a cynical and manipulative attempt to be trendy and curry scandal; claims she changed the spelling of her name from Sheila to Shelagh to try to capitalise on and bandwagon-jump the success of other Irish writers; and refers to her as "an astute self-mythologist" who was only pretending to be a naïve and unworldly girl who happened to have a preternatural talent for writing. Quite a hatchet job on a working class teenager who had "never been more than a few miles from Salford."

By contrast Brayfield goes out of her way to defend Nell Dunn, the aristocratic daughter of one of the wealthiest men in England, who chose to leave the mansion her father had gifted her to move to a slum ("Alexa play Pulp's 'Common People'"), where she became famous by publishing biographical short stories based on the personal traumas of her impoverished neighbours. There are obvious ethical implications of such blatant cultural appropriation, and a book that's supposed to be a work of literary criticism should at least pay lip service to discourse around authenticity, appropriation, poverty porn, and who gets to tell their stories. Yet this book does the opposite, defending Dunn at every turn and acting like the existing of the discourse is an attack. Brayfield introduces Dunn with the baffling claim that the fact she isn't smiling in some society photo shows she was uncomfortable with her wealth and privilege; doesn't question Dunn's claim that she moved from mansion to slum purely out of "loneliness"; and claims the allegations that Dunn exploited her neighbours by appropriating their stories is sheer sexism.

Brayfield gets angry and defensive over mild criticism of Dunn's work, attacking critics who described Dunn's writing as "voyeuristic" and "like a camera" as sexist dinosaurs lacking all imagination. Yet when she describes the deeply personal hate campaign against Delaney, sparked by her admission that she failed the 11+ (a "trashing" that saw her accused of not even writing her own plays), it's with a much more dispassionate tone, and she dismissively refers to Delaney as "giving as good as she got" and "well aware of the process" (ie that scandal sells papers - and theatre tickets), implying that Delaney didn't really suffer from being the victim of a classist and sexist public hate campaign.

When a working class teenager writes about the deprivation around her, it's a cynical and savvy attempt to create scandal, and hate campaigns aren't a big deal because she's gobby enough to argue back. When a wealthy aristo does the same thing (about deprivation she intentionally sought out as writing fodde... sorry "a cure for loneliness" that by sheer absolute coincidence and good luck gave her extremely profitable writing fodder), well that's just good writing and how dare anyone criticise her work!!



I googled the author of this book after writing this, and quelle surprise, she went to one of the most expensive public schools in the country.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was quite fascinating. I enjoyed reading about these women whose novels changed British literary society, and all the factors that played into it.

However, the editing in this book is atrocious and I almost stopped reading it altogether because of that. Phrases repeated, words out of place, sentences so convoluted that I had to read them multiple times and STILL didn’t understand what they said! I have noticed similar editing problems in other nonfiction books I’ve read recently, but those are all from small publishers, so I can understand why that might be. I assume Bloomsbury has the funds to pay a proofreader or two, so what’s going on here?

TL/DR: the book itself has a lot of interesting content if you’re able to muddle through the typos and poor editing.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part biography, part literary criticism this is an exploration of the life and career of 7 key women who were writing in the 50's, 60's and 70's. I didn't always agree with the author's assertion that these writers started second wave feminism, nor that they were accidental feminists. I think these writers knew exactly what they wanted to achieve and were determined to have their place as writers in the world and refused to be held back or pigeon-holed because of their gender. It was interesting to find out more about that and the depressingly patronising way that women were treated not that long ago. These women deserve the extra focus shown here, I would also have welcomed more diverse inclusion in terms of sexuality and ethnicity. Nonetheless this is a book that shows how far we have come but also how far we still have to go, sigh.

With thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

In several ways, this disappointed me. In part because I hadn't closely enough read its remit (and thus had been over-optimistic in hoping to hear of other than those writers cited, and secondly, because not being in the slightest bit analytical, I'm not interested in or excited by literary criticism.

Consequently, this felt very much as though Celia Brayfield had decided to write a book of minimum length, chosen a theme, cast about for texts which supported the points she wished to make, and quoted from them - very often multiple times - to do so. Cited as 'A wonderful and important book', to me it fell short.

[Reading other reviews, I should perhaps say, with the exception of Virginia Ironside, I was already familiar with the writers cited and, having married in 1963 (and still am, happily!) also familiar with the culture and attitudes of society then.]

[Noits · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into contemporaneous women’s writing in the 50s and 60s.

If you can get past the poor editing (grammar pedants beware: some shockers in here!), it’s an insightful and erudite read that provokes further interest into the featured authors. My TBR list has grown significantly.

I’m puzzling over the entire chapter on Angry Young Men, however, and whilst I appreciate the historical relationships, felt it somewhat oxymoronic to focus on male authors in a book about women rebel writers: even for one chapter. It reinforced the othering - as though the book had to articulate their role, for without the comparison, the featured writers would have no context. Brayfield had already provided all I needed to know, by weaving their misogyny through the other chapters. This chapter should have been left on the editor’s floor!

[Rebecc · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye-opening tour through a selection of British women writers active in the 1960s onwards. Some authors I had heard of & others I knew the titles of their books but nothing about the writer themselves. Brayfield's selection is fascinating because of the varying backgrounds of her authors from super working class through to aristocratic, but all face societal pressures of publishing hurdles their male equivalents weren't even aware of. I especially admired the chapter looking at the male equivalent writers of the period the 'Angry Young Men' & actually Brayfield is right the men may have burned brighter at the time, but it's the women authors whose work really captures the period & some of the authors have surpassed their male colleagues in the long run. Of course I will be delving into the list of books by many of these featured authors. Great Stuff.

[Amanda Rosso · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting work, full of potential, but that falls flat.
It lacks direction. It feels like the author was trying to include far too many things, the biographical and the literary aspects of far too many writers and their social milieu. I think it's interesting and well researched, but it comes off as undercooked, at times even inconclusive and repetitive.

It would have benefitted greatly from a more rigorous editing, a restructuring of the core subjects, maybe a more limited focus?

It is a pity, because it has great potential, and the author is indubitably talented, her prose is fresh and captivating, her interest genuine and her research rigours. However, maybe for reasons of marketability or editorial preferences, there is quite the gap between what the book seems to be set to be and the result.

[Lisa Culligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea about the kind of treatment metered out to these very young woman when they first had their books published. Been a child of the 60's it is sometimes difficult to believe the kind of treatment women received at the hands of the male dominated media. However, when I compare my own experiences working in a male dominated arena in the 80's and 90's I can see that although legislation may have changed the hearts and minds of men had barely moved on.
A fantastic look at how brave these woman were when they didn't even realise they were being brave they were just getting on with their lives and taking the negative media storm in their stride.
Well worth a read and not just by women.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists by Celia Brayfield

I picked this novel up at random, as I found the idea of rebellious feminist writers in the 60s intriguing. However, a week later I actually learnt that Celia Brayfield is a lecturer at my university! I had an online lesson with her and she told us all about her writing career which was fascinating. I knew then I instantly had to dive into this book. Rebel Writers was such an interesting read because despite it being a non-fiction I felt as if I was thrown into the literary world of the 60s. I’d definitely say this book is worth the time of day, whether you’re interested in reading about feminism or not. The way that Brayfield manages to encapsulate the lives of these incredible women in under 300 pages is brilliant.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so informative and explores just what life was like for young women in the late 1950s and 1960s. We tend to look on, particularly the 1960s, as a progressive era what with The Pill and so on, but the patriarchy was still very much alive and kicking. Women were still expected to marry, give you their jobs when they did so and start a family. They were expected to be domestic goddesses, not liberated women writing about social injustice and girls who'd 'got into trouble'. If you're a fan of Edna O'Brien, Lynne Reid-Banks or Margaret Forster, you'll love this.

[Adelyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. I quite enjoyed this despite not being familiar with most of the authors featured, which made it difficult as their works are covered and it took me a lot of concentration to not get them mixed up. I happened to pick this up during a NF reading slump, so it took forever - that didn't help either. I did really like the format of this one, how it was divided into different sections e.g. parenthood, race etc. and how the different stories written by the "rebel writers" addressed this.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this and it made me want to find out more about all of the authors discussed.

It's full of glaringly obvious proofreading errors though, which was really annoying as it kept throwing me out of what I was reading. It's almost as though a final proofread wasn't done. No excuse for that from a publisher like Bloomsbury. Just really sloppy.

Not the author's fault, which is why I've still rated it highly.

[Jude Hayland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating non fiction book that really brings to life a period in which so many good female writers were first published.
But the edition I read was so full of errors - at least one per page- as if the manuscript had never been copy read- how can that happen? Words omitted or repeated all over the place - a considerable irritation when reading.

[Deborah Sowery-Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating: what these women wrote about and how original it was at the time, how they were treated compared to new male writers of the period, and how their novels sparked a new literary movement. I was also surprised that I had seen many of the films that were based on the writers.

[Drahcir10001 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great but I knew that beforehand when skim reading at the shop.

I bought it to be able to frame several of the b&w photos included on glossy paper. The photos are wonderful and I’m absolutely delighted with the framed results, Sagan and Delaney especially fascinating writers and personalities.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

The early feminists who came before me and my generation, and the books they wrote about what being a woman in their time was actually like. Many of those books or the films that sprang from them would be unfamiliar to modern readers but nonetheless, they broke the mould and had something worthwhile to say.

[Mairead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I need to read some more of their books

[Rae]

Edna O’Brien. Margaret Forster. 1950s-1960s UK. Feminism. Poorly edited.

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a frustrating contrast between really interesting subject matter and very rubbish writing and editing. Gah

[Erin Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Sarah Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at how far we have come with women's rights and how these writers helped pave the way to change.

[Jane Greer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow this woman really really hates working class people doesn't she?

[Winn Ashford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Poorly written and racist.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt like someone’s A level essay. Needed a better editor and proof reader. C-

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists: Shelagh Delaney • Edna O’Brien • Lynne Reid Banks • Charlotte Bingham • Nell Dunn • Virginia Ironside • Margaret Forster
by Celia Brayfield is a biographical study of the early woem writers who challenged the preconceived ideas of the role of women in society.
The book is divided into three sections; An introduction; Part One Seven Writers and Part Two Out Into the World.
The Introduction speaks of how the seven writers, listed in the title, all shared feelings of a need to revolt against their expecetd destiny – to marry, look after their husbands needs, cater for their children etc. Despite coming from different classes, backgrounds, the women all wrote of this wish in their writings, often through humour but also frequnetly with a sense of dispair. Brayfield details their backgrounds and writings(s), along with any connections between the women. And how society of the time reacted to their writings, with their contemporaries begin to acknowledge that there was a lack of female presentation in litertature – and in particular for the female viewpoint.
A fascinating literary criticsm of seven writers, whom we now recogise as havign documented important aspects of women’s lives and how they empowered the women coming after them.