When Germaine Greer last visited Auckland in 1972 she was billed as 'the high priestess of feminism' attracting huge audiences and widespread media publicity, especially after being arrested and fined $40 for using the word 'bullshit' in public. Hundreds of protesters subsequently gathered to chant 'bullshit' in the court building when the charges were heard.

'Germaine Greer has an endearing gift for trenchant entertainment and no-bullshit criticism,' says British newspaper The Observer, 'she remains likeable and beguiling and makes her successors, earnestly debating lipstick, crèches and quota systems, look dull. She makes feminism fun'. According to American feminist Gloria Steinem Greer 'enjoys what most women do not enjoy, and therefore it's valuable, which is going about and doing battle with men'.

Greer is currently Professor of English and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick, lives in a large farmhouse in Essex and appears regularly on late-night television in Britain. On recent visits to Australia she has campaigned for a treaty with Aboriginal Australia and called upon the women of Australia to wear veils in protest against the war in Iraq.

Once dubbed by Life magazine as the 'saucy feminist that even men like', feminist icon Germaine Greer visits Auckland in September as a guest of the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland and in association with the Auckland Festival.