In the same year she left for Europe, and, after a period in Italy, settled in London in 1964. She worked for
Marks & Spencer as a buying assistant, then, after placing an advertisement in
The Times ("Australian, B.A. wants job in book publishing"), began work at
Hutchinson in 1965. From 1967 to 1970, she was publicity manager of the paperback imprint
Panther Books. An example of her work was when Callil lobbied BBC producer
Lorna Pegram to employ
B. S. Johnson to talk about his 1969 book
The Unfortunates for the TV series
Release. Johnson's book had eight parts that could be read in many different orders. With barely any negotiation, the interview was ready months before the book was ready for publication. The film included Johnson holding a mock-up of the book that was not at all similar to the final publication. Callil later took responsibility for all imprints of
Granada Publishing, and then at
Anthony Blond and
André Deutsch. She left to work for
Ink, a countercultural newspaper founded by
Richard Neville, Andrew Fisher,
Felix Dennis and
Ed Victor in 1971.
Ink was an offshoot of
Oz and was intended to be a bridge between the underground press of the 1960s and the national newspapers of that time. Launched in May 1971, it collapsed in February 1972, following the
Oz obscenity trial. At
Ink, Callil met
Marsha Rowe and
Rosie Boycott, who founded the feminist magazine
Spare Rib in June 1972. In 1973, Callil founded
Virago Press (initially known as Spare Rib Books), to "publish books which celebrated women and women's lives, and which would, by so doing, spread the message of women's liberation to the whole population", through the work of new and neglected women writers. Rowe and Boycott became directors of Virago in its first years. Also in 1972, Callil launched a book publicity company, Carmen Callil Limited.
Harriet Spicer became Callil's assistant. This company, run by Spicer and Callil, helped to finance Virago in its early years, together with Callil's inheritance from her grandfather. with considerable responsibility for the content of the Virago publishing list. In 1976, Virago became an independent company, with Callil, Owen and Spicer as directors, shortly to be joined by
Lennie Goodings and
Alexandra Pringle. Callil left book publishing in 1994, and for some years divided her time between London and
Caunes-Minervois in France. In 1996, Callil chaired the Booker Prize for Fiction panel of judges, which included
Jonathan Coe,
Ian Jack,
A. L. Kennedy and
A. N. Wilson. She was a judge for the 2011
Man Booker International Prize but resigned in protest after her co-judges
Rick Gekoski and
Justin Cartwright chose
Philip Roth as the winner. Callil's 2006 book,
Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family & Fatherland, told the story of Dr Anne Darquier, for seven years Callil's psychiatrist until her suicide in 1970, after which came "the shocking revelation that her father had been
Louis Darquier de Pellepoix,
Commissioner for Jewish Affairs in
Vichy France and known as the French
Eichmann." having involved extensive research carried out on several continents, as Callil "set herself the task of dealing out retroactive justice, not only for Darquier's heinous actions as a Nazi collaborator, but also for the dark, immovable shadow he cast over his daughter's life." In 2010, Callil was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature (RSL). In 2017, she was awarded the RSL's
Benson Medal for exceptional contribution to literature, alongside
Mary-Kay Wilmers and
Margaret Busby. In 2018, Callil featured in the exhibition ''Rights for Women: London's Pioneers in their Own Words'', staged at
Senate House Library,
University of London. In her 2020 book,
Oh Happy Day: Those Times and These Times, Callil "traced the turbulent history of her British ancestors from impoverished working class to deportation to Australia for petty crimes."
Peter Conrad's review in
The Observer concluded: "In its often tearful compassion, its eloquent rage and its vengeful delight in proletarian snook-cocking, Oh Happy Day deserves to be called Dickensian." ==Personal life==