HOWL was delighted to welcome Margaret Busby as the guest of honour at our official launch party on Sunday 8 June 2025. Margaret is a pioneer of British publishing and a long-time advocate of championing women’s voices. She became Britain’s then youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in the 1960s. Today she continues her literary, activist and mentoring activities. You can read more about Margaret’s trailblazing career in this interview and on her official author profile.* Below is an extract of the speech Margaret gave at the party.
Margaret Busby at the HOWL website launch party
“I readily accepted to be here today supporting this launch because I share HOWL’s mission to record and amplify those often-neglected contributions. The importance of recording and highlighting the words of women from all corners of the UK who were involved in any way in the early years of the WLM is undeniable. So, many congratulations HOWL.
Those of us who lived through the past half-century and are still here to tell the tale may be dwindling in number – a few months ago we sadly lost Phillippa Brewster who started Pandora Press, where I first met Candida Lacey, the stalwart commissioning editor of my two anthologies Daughters of Africa (1992) and New Daughters of Africa (2019), which together featured the creativity of more than 400 contributors – but we must still testify to foundational landmarks.
Beginning my publishing career in the late 1960s, I had been inspired by coming across the names of Black women trailblazers in the UK literary field. In the 1970s and 1980s, I published writings by many inspirational women. Before I produced in 1992 Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent, giving space to more than 200 women, came such breakthrough texts as The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain, co-authored in 1985 by Stella Dadzie, Suzanne Scafe and Beverley Bryan.
In our consciousness, too, were collectives such as the Brixton Black Women’s Group (1973-89) – great to see on HOWL frank reflections of a time when dissatisfaction with the Women’s Liberation Movement led to a creative surge of energy among women to form different associations such as OWAAD (Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent, 1978-83), and Southall Black Sisters.
Find on HOWL stories of our exciting engagement with early publications such as Spare Rib, and the eager welcoming of feminist books, crucial contributions from the Black feminist movement (with more surely to come). HOWL is also a space for women who do not see themselves as ‘important’ or central to the narrative, but who have relevant personal tales to share about work, childcare, sex and love. Let’s join forces to bear witness to our history.
How useful, interesting and enjoyable it is to read the expanding collection of historical memories already on the website! It can only go on to become increasingly invaluable as a resource for future generations, and equally fascinating for those of us who participated in or were touched in any way by the History of Women’s Liberation. So, this is just the beginning. HOWL’s story-gathering is set to result ‘in layers and levels and weavings and patchworks, and occasional drawings and pictures’ (to borrow words from Sue O’Sullivan) ‘of an immense social justice movement of the last century which, thankfully, staggers on, finding new ways, and remembering old…’ Find here, indeed, our unforgettable stories and experiences…
Let’s all raise a glass and a cheer to HOWL!”