Dame Carmen Thérèse Callil, DBE, FRSL (15 July 1938 – 17 October 2022) was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom.
An example of her work was when Callil lobbied BBC producer Lorna Pegram to employ B. S. Johnson to talk about his 1969 book The Unfortunates for the TV series Release.
She left to work for Ink, a countercultural newspaper founded by Richard Neville, Andrew Fisher, Felix Dennis and Ed Victor in 1971.
[10] At Ink, Callil met Marsha Rowe and Rosie Boycott, who founded the feminist magazine Spare Rib in June 1972.
Ursula Owen became a part-time editor in 1974, before becoming a full-time director later that year,[14] with considerable responsibility for the content of the Virago publishing list.
In 1976, Virago became an independent company,[15] with Callil, Owen and Spicer as directors, shortly to be joined by Lennie Goodings and Alexandra Pringle.
[3] As a writer and critic, she has contributed reviews and features to many newspapers and journals, in addition to undertaking occasional radio and television work.
[5][18] In 1996, Callil chaired the Booker Prize for Fiction panel of judges, which included Jonathan Coe, Ian Jack, A. L. Kennedy and A. N.
[19] She was a judge for the 2011 Man Booker International Prize but resigned in protest after her co-judges Rick Gekoski and Justin Cartwright chose Philip Roth as the winner.
"[31] Peter Conrad's review in The Observer concluded: "In its often tearful compassion, its eloquent rage and its vengeful delight in proletarian snook-cocking, Oh Happy Day deserves to be called Dickensian.