WONDERFUL WOMEN WRITERS - SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY MARCH 8

As this is rather a special day for women, and particularly those interested in writing, some of my new colleagues in the Society of Women Writers and Journalists suggested, as I am their archivist, that I reprise some of those wonderful pioneers from our history book.

Our Society is truly international.  Over its 124 years, it has attracted some of the most famous writers in literary history.  I proudly wrote about them in one of my books  THE WOMAN WRITER which has been helpful to many academics studying women writers' lives over the past century, but I also included numerous journalists, authors, playwrights, poets, film-makers and entertainers from every genre.  

Over the decades, we have attracted many of the most celebrated authors, among them have been  Lady Sarah Wilson (Sir Winston Churchill's aunt), Lady Violet Astor, Elise Sprott pioneer at the |BBC, Ursula Bloom, Theodora Roscoe, Margery Allingham, Marguerite Radclyffe Hall, Rebecca West, Alice Meynall, Phyllis Bentley, Joyce Grenfell, Vera Brittain, Shirley Williams (Lady Williams), Elizabeth Longford (Lady Longford), Nina Bawden, and the lovely Jean Bowden, to name just a few. 

In recent years we have welcomed P D James, Elizabeth Bowen, Jacqueline Wilson, Sandra Howard, Victoria Wood, Martina Cole, Jennifer Worth, Ann Widdecombe and our new president, Baroness Floella Benjamin, along with many more wonderful  personalities who mingled with us at special weekend events and lunches at the National Liberal Club as members, patrons and guests. Do keep any eye on our Society website  www.swwj.co. which keeps us all up to date on what is happening. Social media also plays its important part in highlighting upcoming activities.