Hachette UK imprint Virago, the feminist publisher now celebrating its 50th birthday, has bought Feminism for a World on Fire by the British feminist writer and activist Natasha Walter. The book is a treatise for the next wave of feminism. Lennie Goodings, chair of Virago, acquired world rights from Anna Webber at United Agents in London.
The publisher describes the book as an important and rallying call for change, [that] takes feminism back to its radical roots and crucially, encompasses todays urgent concerns about economics and climate change.
It continues: Harnessing the anger and impatience that many women feel by growing inequality, misogyny and the failures of individualist feminism, it also maps out a way to move forward by bringing what is most valuable in feminist and environmental thought and action together. In a world that now stands on the brink of catastrophe, we can no longer rely on the same old stories. This is the time to build new relationships both with one another and with the planet.
Walter said: This book is a passionate take on one of the key issues of our times: how feminism has so far failed to make the dream of a more equal world into reality, and how time may now be running out to turn things around. In it, I will harness the anger and impatience that many women feel as we experience a world defined not only by growing inequality and misogyny but also by the impending climate and nature emergency.
In its exposure of the failures of individualist feminism, this book is not afraid to speak unwelcome truths. But it also maps out a way to move forward, and by bringing what is most valuable in feminist and environmental thought and action together, this book forges a realistic and relevant vision for our changed times.
Virago plans to publish in early 2025.