Fiona Mountain is in conversation with Kate Macdonald about Handheld’s republication of What Not. This is Rose Macaulay’s speculative novel of post-First World War eugenics and newspaper manipulation that influenced Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
Published in 1918, What Not was hastily withdrawn due to a number of potentially libellous pages, and was reissued in 1919, but had lost its momentum. Now republished for the first time with the suppressed pages reinstated, What Not is a lost classic of feminist protest at social engineering, and rage at media manipulation.
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Questions:
"Who was Rose Macaulay?" - 00:00
"She was related to many intellectuals wasn't she?" - 01:37
"Tell us about her life during World War One?" - 02:15
"Explain how the books shines a light on professional women's lives during World War One?" - 03:29
"It's got a remarkable publication history, tell us a bit more about that?" - 04:12
"There's evidence that it inspired A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, can you tell us a bit about that?" - 07:51
"It's a novel full of ideas and questions, what are some of the most important ones?" - 08:47
"The introduction describes the book as an 'unfairly overlooked text', can you explain what you mean by that?" - 10:01
"It's already had an amazing reception in the press, can you tell us a bit more about that?" - 11:08
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Filmed and edited by Kat Marsh.