Virago lands writer and activist Walter’s ‘extraordinary’ memoir Before the Light Fades

Virago has signed an “extraordinary” memoir by writer and activist Natasha Walter entitled Before the Light Fades: a Memoir of Grief and Resistance. 

Lennie Goodings, Virago chair, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Anna Webber at United Agents, for publication in August 2023.

The publisher’s synopsis reads that the story begins one day in December, when Walter’s mother, Ruth, took her own life.

“At first, the grief and guilt that Natasha felt were overwhelming. As the author of feminist books and the founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women, Natasha had always been active in movements for social justice. But in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide, her personal grief intertwined with a sense of political despair,” it continues.

“It is only when she began to learn more about Ruth’s history that she began to understand the bravery of her mother, beginning with involvement in the nuclear disarmament movement of the 1960s, where Ruth met and fell in love with the anarchist writer Nicolas Walter.

“Ruth had been brought up to be a conventional young woman but she chose to take huge risks and even break the law. Natasha’s search took her further, to her grandfather’s heroic anti-Nazi resistance work in 1930s Germany for which he was imprisoned for three years. It brought her to a deeper and more hopeful understanding of the legacy that her parents and grandparents have left her.”

In the book Walter explores why it is always important to stand up for what you believe, even when success is far from assured. “It will resonate with those grappling with the loss of hope in these challenging political times, as well as those who are living in the shadow of bereavement,” the synopsis concludes.

Walter is the author of a novel entitled The Quiet Life (The Borough Press) and two works of non-fiction: Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism and The New Feminism (Virago). She is the founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women.

Goodings said: “Natasha and I have worked together for 25 years. I am deeply moved and inspired by her and by this, her memoir. A wonderful and important book. “