Notices
Feminist Art Lives Project Launches
Feminist Art Lives, an 8-part podcast featuring interviews from the Feminist Art Making Histories oral history project. Collectively, FAMH’s interviews with artists, curators, art historians and art workers provide access to their reflections on their engagements with feminism, experiences of the art world and art education, and involvement in political campaigns and solidarity struggles. https://www.famh.art/about
HOWL material by Hilary Land used for A-Level History curriculum
Hilary Land’s article on the fifth demand of the Women’s Liberation movement on the HOWL website has inspired a history researcher from Royal Holloway to use the article for curriculum resource material on an A-Level course covering the history of second wave feminist activism. Well done Hilary! Read her article here: https://howl-uk.org/
The Maypole Fund’s 40th Year Celebration
The Maypole Fund will be celebrating 40 years of supporting feminist activism against war and militarism on the afternoon of Saturday 31 October at an accessible venue in central London. Formed in 1986 by women involved in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, it has resourced over 600 feminist projects in the UK and internationally. The afternoon will be a celebration of The Maypole Fund’s journey and aims to bring together different generations of activists and diverse movements interested in feminist activism, organising and resourcing against militarism and war, and for peace with justice. All welcome! Please register by sending an email to maypolefund@yahoo.co.uk for a programme and details of venue.
The Blue Moon Trust
The Blue Moon Trust is a small group of left and feminist Jewish activists in the UK, who founded the charity in 2017. Their aims are to ‘promote racial harmony, protect the physical and mental health of asylum seekers, and advance education in human rights and equality’. HOWL is entirely a volunteer collective, and we urgently need funds to encourage our activities especially to advance education in human rights and equality through our historic activism. We feel that knowledge of our activism through the women’s liberation movement (WLM) is essential for our future and that of future generations, as the international political situation grows ever more dire. And it was a Blue Moon when our bid was successful in early April 2026.
Sue O’Sullivan in Strangers on a Bench Podcast
On her way home walking through Clissold Park last autumn, Sue O’Sullivan was politely tapped on her shoulder, stopped, and became part of the podcast series, Strangers on a Bench in which she talks about her life.
Margaret Busby – ‘Part of the Story: Writings from Half a Century’ published
Last June (2025) HOWL was thrilled to welcome publisher, author, and activist Margaret Busby as the guest of honour at our official launch party at the Hammersmith Irish Centre. In her speech Margaret was sharp, funny and very kind about the importance of HOWL’s work. We were delighted that we’d been fortunate enough to have her join us at the launch.
Since then Margaret has been as busy as ever. She recently published another landmark book, a collection of her prose writing called Part of the Story: Writings from Half a Century, published by Hamish Hamilton. Find out more about Margaret in a fascinating and informative article published in February 2026 by Lavinia Greenlaw entitled:
Making books with Margaret Busby – What I learned from working for the publisher who revolutionised literary London
https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/making-books-with-margaret-busby
HOWL at Million Women Rise March, 7th March 2026 – International Women’s Day
The photos are from the now annual International Women’s Day march, held as near to March 8th as possible. This time 7 March. In the 21st century it has been organised by MILLION WOMEN RISE. Before that it was organised by groups from the WLM. The first, we think, was March 1971, as Amanda Sebesteyn’s placard said. Many women from HOWL, 70s Sisters (eg Lee Comer), Older Feminist Network (eg Molly aged 90) and Women in Black (eg Liz Khan) were there this year.
HOWL at the Women’s Library on 19th March 2026
Thursday 19th March at 2.30pm: Miriam David and Daphne Davies will join Mary Evans at the Women’s Library to talk about their work with HOWL, including writing about experiences of WLM in Bristol 1960 – 70s, and the way the women’s movement used banners and posters to show women’s empowerment.
https://friendsofthewomenslibrary.org.uk/fotwl-events/feminism-from-the-20th-to-the-21st-century/
15th June: Frankie Armstrong at The Cellar Upstairs in Islington
(See new HOWL story by Helen Martins to see how Frankie features!)
Frankie has been singing professionally since 1964, and has sung and run workshops all over Europe, North America and Australia, working in every kind of setting from hospitals to the National Theatre in London. She began running her pioneering voice workshops, based on ethnic styles of singing – where singing is as natural as speaking – in 1975, and is the president of the Natural Voice Network. Her singing of the big traditional ballads is famous, but she also performs political, lyrical and comic songs, among others; http://www.
ENTRANCE: £10
INFORMATION: 020 7281 7700; https://cellarupstairs.org.uk/
VENUE: Upstairs at The Alpaca, 84-86 Essex Road, N1 8LU, from 8pm to 10.45pm.
HOWL ‘Drop in’ at Brighton & Hove Women’s History Group
On Tuesday 10th March, Helena & Gail will visit Brighton & Hove Women’s History Group: “They will give a brief history of how HOWL came into being and how the collective works. They will then explore the HOWL website, whilst outlining the aims of the group – more recording of women’s history, both through writing and orally! There will be time for either writing or reflecting on what could be included, either individually or jointly.” Visit the Brighton & Hove Women’s History website here.
History Workshop at 50 on Soundcloud
On 12 March, there will be an event in London to celebrate the women’s library collections now held at the LSE (London School of Economics). Free but book (and find out more) through this eventbrite link.
New deposit of WLM material
Jane Woddis informed us of a new archive of material on the Birmingham Women’s Liberation (later Women’s Movement) Playgroup, which ran from 1970 to 2006. “We have recently deposited our small collection with the Women’s Library: https://archives.lse.ac.uk/
Nettie Pollard
It is with sadness that we learnt of the death of HOWL member Nettie Pollard on 25 December 2025. Nettie was a loyal and enthusiastic member of the HOWL organising group since the beginning. She maintained her presence in regular HOWL zoom meetings from Covid lockdown, through her long and complicated illness which resulted in her death. We will miss her.
Letter in The Guardian
Sue O’Sullivan and Miriam David on being part of the women’s liberation movement, in response to a long read by Susanna Rustin on the Sex Discrimination Act. Click here to read.
New administrator – Georgia Anderson
Georgia Anderson has now joined the HOWL organising group as their new administrator. She will be assisting with email enquiries, social media, clerking at monthly meetings as well as helping to develop the Friends Scheme and HOWL’s wider network of contributors. She holds an MA in Public History from Birkbeck, specialising in oral history methodology and is a keen historian from below. She is a founding member of MayDay Radio, a member of the Raphael Samuel History Centre, and sometimes writes. She has a young son and lives on a boat in London with her partner and cat.
Margaret Busby launches HOWL
We were delighted to welcome Margaret Busby as the guest of honour at the official HOWL Launch Party on Sunday 8 June. Margaret is a pioneer of British publishing and a long-time advocate of championing women’s voices. Click here to read an extract of the wonderful speech Margaret gave at the party!
Newly added stories
From a Catholic Convent to Lesbian Feminism! – by Carol Smith
Finding Women’s Liberation – by Judy Greenaway
Greenham Gals – by Liz Tunmer
How can a Feminist be a Nurse? By Barbara Ridley
Fen Women – Mary Chamberlain (photos by Angela Phillips)
Vaginal Politics, Dizzy with Discovery – Sue O’Sullivan
The Disappearing of Old Feminist Clitoral Knowledge – Sue O’Sullivan
Memories of Essex University – Amber Djemal, Lynne Friedli, Michelle Grant and Chris Baylis (Lavercombe)
Thirty Thousand Women – Carole Martin
Generations of Memories – Jeanette Copperman
HOWLING WITH PRIDE AND SHAME: Recollections of the Women’s Liberation Movement – Diane Langford
Lesbians Choosing to Have Children in the 1970s – Carol Ackroyd
The Greatest of Times – Helen Taylor
A Free Pregnancy Testing Service for Bristol – Helen Donahue and Janet Brewer
Lesbians Ignite at Warwick University – by Nic Humberstone (available to read here)
The Fifth Demand of the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1974-75 – by Hilary Land (available to read here)
Becoming a feminist in Paris, early 1970s – by Helen Bishop (available to read here)
The Way We Wrote, 1969-1989 – by Amanda Sebestyen (available to read here)
First Days in the Women’s Liberation Movement, Bristol 1970 – by Marilyn Porter (available to read here)
Some Thoughts in the Night – by Ellen Malos (available to read here)
Lesbians travelling before the internet – Gaia’s Guide and Women Going Places – by Helena Bishop (available to read here)
My Time at the London Irish Women’s Centre – by Angie Birtill (available to read here)
Inside and Out: complexities and contradictions in the WLM – by Paddy Tanton (available to read here)
1976 – A Transformational Year by Pam Isherwood (available to read here)
How Brixton Library Led Me to the Brixton Black Women’s Group by Sona Osman (available to read here)
Women’s Books, Bristol by Janet Brewer (available to read here)
Discovering You Are Other by Di Parkin (available to read here)
Becoming and Being a Feminist by Jeanne Rathbone (available to read here)
Women’s Liberation Music in the 1970s by Frankie Green (available to read here)
Feminism, squatting, housing: memories of 70s/80s in Islington by Frankie Green (available to read here)
Mismatch: How I became a Feminist by Sona Osman (available to read here)
Women’s Liberation in the late 1960s to Bristol Autumn 1973 by Miriam David (available to read here)