Square Haunting by Francesca Wade.

 

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade.

Published 16th January 2020 by Faber Books.

From the cover of the book:

'I like this London life . . . the street-sauntering and square-haunting.' Virginia Woolf, diary, 1925

Mecklenburgh Square, on the radical fringes of interwar Bloomsbury, was home to activists, experimenters and revolutionaries; among them were the modernist poet H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and writer and publisher Virginia Woolf. They each alighted there seeking a space where they could live, love and, above all, work independently.

Francesca Wade's spellbinding group biography explores how these trailblazing women pushed the boundaries of literature, scholarship, and social norms, forging careers that would have been impossible without these rooms of their own.

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I find the period between the wars endlessly fascinating, because there is so much to delve into around the social changes that were taking place, especially for women, so Square Haunting really caught my attention.

In this book, Francesca Wade gives an account of the lives of five women, who are all connected by virtue of living in and around London's Mecklenburgh Square on the fringes of Bloomsbury, during the interwar years. Bloomsbury, during this era, was home to many activists and revolutionary thinkers, and Wade chooses as her subjects modernist poet H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and author and publisher Virginia Woolf.

I had previously only heard of the very famous Woolf and Sayers, so found it fascinating to learn about how each of each of these women fought to push the boundaries in each of their chosen professional fields and through their unconventional personal lives, forging the way for the women who came after them. Each of their stories is very much in the vein of Woolf's assertion that to explore their intellectual freedom a woman needs a room of their own, and Mecklenburgh Square is where they found the freedom to achieve their success.

Interestingly, Wade does not stop at recounting the intellectual pursuits of these women alone, but also examines how they struggled to reconcile all aspects of their lives with their need to work independently, including their romantic lives, how they supported themselves, and the stifling constraints of how others thought they should feel and act - all themes that are still very relatable for women today.

My favourite character here actually turned out to be the wonderful historian Jane Harrison, who I am keen to read more about, but all these women are fabulous trailblazers and deserve to be celebrated.

I cannot recommend this one highly enough!

Square Haunting is available to buy now in hardback, paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

About the author:

Francesca Wade has written for publications including the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Financial Times, New Statesman and Prospect. She is editor of The White Review, and winner of the Biographers' Club Tony Lothian Prize. Square Haunting is her first book. She lives in London.