Five Pounds For 'A Room Of One's Own'

Five Pounds For 'A Room Of One's Own' describes how, aged 20, Sarah Hosking resolved one day to give reality to Virginia Woolf's famous dictum that a woman needs a room of her own and money if she is to write. This book describes how her parental background, education and working life in the arts prepared her to achieve this. On her retirement in 2000, she set about raising money, buying property and thereby establishing The Hosking Houses Trust which has since hosted dozens, even hundreds, of women writers and, later, artists who have enjoyed a room of their own for one or two months' long residencies. Having no money beyond her own modest pension, Sarah allocated five pounds for stamps when she started fund-raising. Gradually, money and reputation accumulated and, based in south Warwickshire, The Hosking Houses Trust residencies have become the embodiment of Virginia Woolf's initial inspiration. - "Sarah's miraculous support for women who need a room of their own in which to write has been an inspiration to me for years. Long may The Hosking Houses Trust continue!"- Dame Emma Thompson, patron. -"Sarah Hosking is one of a kind, and so is her memoir; frank, clever, gripping, generous-spirited and full of insights into what it is to be a free woman navigating the rapids of twentieth and twenty-first century life. I absolutely loved it, and learned a lot along the way about art, England and how to help others." - Maggie Gee, Professor Emeritus, OBE.