News and Work in Progress



IN THE FAMILY WAY: A NEW BOOK ABOUT THE STIGMA OF ILLEGITIMACY.

My next book, to be published by Viking Penguin in 2015, is already proving a fascinating and revealing project. It’s about the personal experience of illegitimacy – from parents’ and children’s point of view – from the end of the First World War to the dawn of the permissive age in the 1960s. There has apparently been a complete change in attitude to bastards since then . Why? How can something mean so much to one generation, and so little to the next?

The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child was founded in 1918 in response to the number of ‘fatherless’ wartime babies, and one of the WI’s first national campaigns was in support of the Bastardy Bill in 1920, lobbying for legal and financial support for single mothers. That seems a good place to begin. And sexual intercourse was invented in 1963, according to poet Philip Larkin; the sixties brought us the Pill and the abortion act, too.

Like Bluestockings, In the Family Way will be based on first-hand accounts, and tell a story which at times will be shocking to a liberal modern audience. It will have its triumphs, too, and plenty of evidence that the human spirit can find strength, humour, and forgiveness in the most difficult of circumstances.

As usual, I’m appealing for relevant personal stories, reminiscences, and family histories; a guide to the sort of material I’m looking for can be found here: Illegitimacy Questionnaire. I’d love to hear from you – and please spread the word!


A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.

My new history of the Women’s Institute is storming along: it reprinted within a fortnight of publication – and again a month or so later – and the Virago paperback will be out later this year. An audiobook will be available in Spring 2012 (Isis). Reviews have been very positive: Miranda Seymour in The Sunday Times said ‘Robinson’s book offers a witty, informed and continuously entertaining account of an organisation for which Robinson herself demonstrates a sincere and thoroughly well-founded respect’. It was a Readers’ Digest ‘Recommended Read’, called ‘fascinating, affectionate, and surprisingly funny’. Laura Feigel in The Observer said ‘thanks to Robinson’s wide-ranging research and stylish writing [the book] is a spirited and engaging read‘.

I regret that I’m unable to visit individual WIs, simply because I wouldn’t have time to fulfil every request, and don’t think it’s fair to pick and choose. But I’m delighted to have been asked to speak at various County Federation meetings. I’m also busy with literary festivals, bookshops, and other engagements.

Please contact me on jane@jane-robinson.com for more information on forthcoming talks in (amongst other places) Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, London, Surrey, Clwyd, Carmarthen, Guernsey, E. Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk & Cumbria.