From Bloomsbury poet to bag lady: Celia Robertson recalls the life of her grandmother [audio 9min]

'The girl poet is my discovery' announced Virginia Woolf in a letter to Hugh Walpole in April 1931 after reading some poems by Joan Easdale. Two volumes of her poetry were published by Woolf while she was still a teenager. But by the end of her life, Joan had changed her name to Sophie Curly and was living rough on the streets of Nottingham. So what happened to her in the intervening years? Celia Robertson joins presenter Jenni Murray to remember her grandmother and trace her extraordinary journey; from post-war emigration through psychiatric practices of the 1950s to the grim realities of British city life in the 1990s. Who Was Sophie by Celia Robertson is published by Virago Press.