Welcome to this site about Brigid Brophy.
Brophy in the 1970s
I am Kate Levey, her daughter.
You can find me on Twitter @BrophyLevey and email me at kate.levey@hotmail.co.uk
Brigid Brophy (1929-1995) wrote seven novels as well as essays, plays, short stories, and non-fiction studies. She was also a highly regarded literary critic, sought after for reviews. A trenchant polemicist, Brophy wrote on an impressive variety of topics, including homosexual equality, prison reform, humanism, marriage, and the rights of animals. An effective activist, she instigated the successful campaign to achieve Public Lending Right, which helps fund authors today. Brophy’s legacy is too great to capture neatly; the aim of these pages is merely to offer an overview of some of her major work.
Three new Brigid Brophy volumes, published in 2020, mark the continued interest in her work:
A book of essays showing the breadth of Brophy's achievements.
Faber's new edition of this Brophy masterpiece.
Brophy was instrumental in the modern animal rights movement.
The Waste Disposal Unit
Thanks to Homo Promos, Brigid Brophy’s 1964 radio play The Waste Disposal Unit has been revived!
In July 2021 it was performed live on Zoom, and the production is now available to view on YouTube, at:
The Waste Disposal Unit is a succinct and witty black farce set in Italy. The dialogue is in what Brophy called ‘North American’ -a language she said was ‘almost a perversion of language itself’. The play is a synthesis of some of Brigid Brophy’s favoured topics such as the naturalness of homosexuality, and the necessity of art.