Offprint of an article in 'Women: a Cultural Review' Vol. 19 No. 2, 2008, together with the letter from Jan Montefiore to Kate Varney, 2 May 2006, which initiated the 'conversation'. The conversation is edited and abridged from a recording of a three hour interview with Kate Varney made on 6 November 2006. It focuses on the domestic background of the Leavis household, Q D Leavis' childhood and family history, her illnesses, her energy and creativity in domestic matters, and the fact that her life was dominated by being a wife, a mother and a serious intellectual, contrasted with the image of F R Leavis working in his study while she did her thinking while she was 'stirring the jam'.