Michèle Roberts has doubts about 'me, me, me' feminism

Born in 1949 into a middle-class home, the daughter of a French mother and an English father, she rebelled against her Roman Catholic background and sought out a radical, bohemian existence which embraced communal living, free love and the socialist feminism of the 70s.

The life she went on to create for herself, chronicled in her new autobiography, Paper Houses, has been as consciously mould-breaking as her experiments in fiction. Born in 1949 into a middle-class home, the daughter of a French mother and an English father, she rebelled against her Roman Catholic background and sought out a radical, bohemian existence which embraced communal living, free love and the socialist feminism of the 70s.

Roberts feels ambivalent about what has happened to feminism in the past 30 years. "My sort of feminism was defeated in the Thatcher years, as socialism was. I feel that the feminism that triumphed is the sort I don't like: what I call shoulderpads feminism. It's all about being an individual in a capitalist society. Put on your suit, go to the City, make a lot of money: it's all me, me, me. My sort of feminism is about collectivity. I think this sort of feminism still exists quietly, in women's friendships, for example. When I was young I could see women's friendships weren't valued. It was common that if you were going to see a woman friend and you got a date with a boy you broke the date with the girl. I don't think that would happen now."

The final paragraph of her memoir: "Love goes on. The love of friends. Friendship is my oxygen. I've said that often and it's true. Writing goes on too: I keep on building my paper house; my chrysalis."

LINK: The Guardian