This book is an ideal beginner's guide to British women's writing from the fourteenth century to the present. Concise, informative, and well organized, it has entries on 400 writers from Aphra Behn to Jeanette Winterson, Mary Wollestonecraft to Barbara Cartland. Each entry offers an outline of each writer's life, her major publications, contemporary critical reception and an assessment of her work. This book is intended for general; students of English literature; especially those following courses on women's writing.