SOURCE: Roberts, Michèle, and Stephen Brasher. “Influences: Michèle Roberts, Writer and Broadcaster.” New Statesman 126, no. 4341 (4 July 1997): 21.

In the following interview, Roberts comments on her literary influences and political opinions.

[Brasher]: Which books and authors have had the greatest effect on your political beliefs?

[Roberts]: Sheila Rowbotham's books helped me to see that you need to be a socialist to be a feminist.

Name one film, book, play, poem and piece of music that you would like everyone to see, read or hear.

Film: I love all Buñuel's films and would recommend The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

Book: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is passionately concerned with the imagination as part of rebellion.

Play: The medieval mystery plays.

Poem: I love the bee symbolism in Sylvia Plath's Ariel.

Music: A Feather on the Breath of God by Hildegard of Bingen.

In the early stages of...