The Outlook Mixtape: A room of one's own

Nearly 100 years ago, the British writer Virginia Woolf wrote her seminal text A Room of One's Own, about the need for women to have their own space – physically and intellectually. We look at three stories from people who have run with the idea of shaking off convention to create the room to be themselves.

Everlyn Nicodemus fell in love with painting when she was in her 20s living in Tanzania. But it was only when she was in her 60s, widowed and working in nursing homes that her art was discovered and she was given the luxury of her own studio. Outlook's May Cameron visited Everlyn in her studio in Scotland and heard how she went from struggling to pay her bills to showcasing her art in the world's most prestigious art galleries.

Hiba was studying English literature in the early 2000s in Syria when she read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own for the first time. She told Jo Fidgen in 2019 about the uprisings in Syria and how her feminist defiance towards the Assad regime was inspired by Virginia Woolf.

Deke Duncan loves radio and for decades has run a pretend music station from his garden shed, with his friends in the UK. Typically, he has only one listener – his wife. In 2018 he told Jo Fidgen how that all changed when he received a call from his local radio station with an offer to broadcast to thousands of people for the first time.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: May Cameron

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo: A transparent 60-minute cassette tape with a white label with the words: The Outlook Mixtape. Credit: Getty Images)