My Kentish Town: Editor of newly renamed Feminist Times magazine Charlotte Raven on being an ‘unsuccessful’ journalist
Editor of Feminist Times Charlotte Raven at her Kentish Town home. Picture: Polly Hancock - Credit: Archant
Journalist Charlotte Raven, 43, re-launched radical feminist magazine Spare Rib in April from her Kentish Town home before legal wrangling forced her to change the name twice to Feminist Times. Famously known for her affair with fellow journalist Julie Burchill in the 1990s, Charlotte is now the mother of two young children.
What brought you to Kentish Town?
My horrible ex-boyfriend lived in Inkerman Road in the 1990s, but his neighbours were lovely and so was the Kentishtowner who told me I should leave him after overhearing one of our arguments in Pizza Express. My husband and I moved to Bartholomew Villas 10 years ago and have been really happy in Kentish Town.
You have a day off to spend as you wish in Kentish Town, what do you do?
I would take my eight-year-old daughter Anna to the women’s pond for a swim, then to Arancini Brothers cafe for hot chocolate and blondies.
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What is the single best thing about being a Kentish Town resident?
I love seeing the woman dressed up in Victorian clothes in the street and speculating about her life. My kids are as fascinated about her as I am. My four-year-old son thinks she might “come though the walls” and spirit him back to the Victorian age. Anna wants to interview her for the kids section of Feminist Times. She wants to know whether she has a boyfriend and, more importantly, how she feels about her calling.
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You have had such success in your journalistic career – what do you put that down to?
I don’t think I’ve been successful. I haven’t earned a bean since the 1990s, but I have always had a platform to write about the things that interest me and I’m very fortunate in that respect.
Why did you want to set up a feminist magazine?
It seemed like the right time. I was inspired by the Spare Rib founders’ vision of an alternative to the glossies aimed at ordinary women rather than the politically committed.
If you hadn’t become a journalist, what would you have been in an ideal world?
A singer in a Slits-like punk band called Charlotte Raven and her Kind.
If you had to write your own epitaph, what would it say?
Died trying.
