More than five minutes of fame

The internet can make anyone famous. Not only are geek bloggers emerging from behind their dusty keyboards to become celebrities, but the famous are now using websites as marketing tools, talking directly to fans, and monitoring everything that is revealed without the need for the uncaring and apathetic press.

But amongst the mass of celebrity fan sites dedicated to pop singers, actors, and those famous for doing absolutely nothing other than simply existing, lies a fan site for a very famous woman who may not be considered a celebrity by most.

Like most celebrities, she associated with a type of brat-pack; a group that were deeply engrossed in their own pursuits. They talked together, partied together, and slept together. She had a husband and a female lover and like any good celebrity she was talented, ahead of her time but hugely tormented and destined to meet a tragic death. Most importantly, her work has changed the literary landscape.

While one might not necessarily think of Virginia Woolf as a celebrity thousands of enthusiasts from all around the world beg to differ. Virginia Woolf Societies from Great Britain, America, France and Japan hold annual conferences, lectures and meetings to explore the work of one of the world's most celebrated authors.

Starting with only a handful of members in 1973 the International Virginia Woolf Society now has thousands of members worldwide who aim "to present Virginia Woolf in her true light as a great novelist, essayist, publisher, and woman of letters by stimulating research into her life and works, into the life and works of her friends, family and associates, and into the era in which she lived." They also aim to provide "opportunities for members to meet, correspond and share their enjoyment of her work."

Woolf was born in London in 1882 to a large literary family. Her depression began in her teens and was initially seen as a symptom of the deaths of her parents and sister. It was later discovered her depression was probably the result of being sexually abused by her brothers in her younger years.

After the death of her father in 1904 Woolf formed the Bloomsbury group, a collection of artists and writers including Leonard Woolf, who would later become Virginia's husband. Her first novel The Voyage Out was published in 1915 but her most famous works include Mrs. Dalloway , To the Lighthouse and Orlando .

In 1941, after a severe bout of depression, she filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse leaving a note that said: "I feel certain that I am going mad again: I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shant [sic] recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness... I can't fight it any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work". She was 59.

Why are so many people from all around the world attracted to this long-dead writer? Apart from her experimental and innovative writing, Woolf was passionate and tortured. Unlike airbrushed celebrities who live pretend perfect lives, Woolf's humanity, her sorrows, and her eccentricities are captured honestly and powerfully in her books, classic literary works that, unlike Nikki Hilton's handbags and Lindsay Lohan's singles, will stand the test of time.

In her lifetime Woolf published nine books, the last one in 1941, the year of her death. So once all the books are read and every word written by and about her is analysed, what is left to discuss and dissect? For the Woolfians around the world, the challenge is to grow her readership and fan base and cement her place in literary history. By encouraging new readers Woolf's books won't become dusty paperbacks hidden on the bottom shelf of the second-hand bookstore like so many other books of the same era.

If this fan club has its way people will continue to meet the repressed Clarissa Dalloway and the eternally youthful Orlando hundreds of years from now. Virginia Woolf is destined to be one celebrity that won't soon be forgotten.

Anabel Pandiella

The 16 th Annual International Conference of Virginia Woolf will be held 22-25 June, 2006 at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Birmingham UK.

Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain

The International Virginia Woolf Society