Despite the enduring popularity of contemporary women's writing, British women writers have received scant critical attention. They tend to be overshadowed by their American counterparts in the media and have come to be represented within the academy almost exclusively by Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson. This collection celebrates the range and diversity of contemporary (post-1970) British women writers. It challenges misconceptions about the nature and scope of fiction by women writers working in Britain - commonly dismissed as parochial, insular, dreary and domestic - and seeks to expand conventional definitions of 'British' by exploring how issues of nationality intersect with gender, class, race and sexuality. Writers covered include Pat Barker, A.L. Kennedy, Maggie Gee, Rukhsana Ahmad, Joan Riley, Jennifer Johnston, Ellen Galford, Susan Hill, Fay Weldon, Emma Tennant, and Helen Fielding. Contributors: DAVID ELLIS, CLARE HANSON, MAROULA JOANNOU, PAULINA PALMER, EMMA PARKER, FELICITY ROSSLYN, CHRISTIANE SCHLOTE, JOHN SEARS, ELUNED SUMMERS-BREMNER, IMELDA WHELEHAN, GINA WISKER.

Introduction: Defending the Domestic, Re-appraising the Parochial - Emma Parker
Fiction, Feminism and Femininity: From the Eighties to the Noughties - Clare Hanson
Sex and the Single Girl: Helen Fielding, Erica Jong and Helen Gurley Brown - Imelda Whelehan
Pat Barker and the Languages of Region and Class - Mararoula Joannou
'Making Sorrow Speak': Maggie Gee's Novels - John Sears
'Wives and Workers': The Novels of Joan Riley - David Ellis
Confrontational Sites: Cultural Conflicts, Social Inequality, and Sexual Politics in the Work of Rukhsana Ahmad - Christiane Schlote
'The Nonsense About Our Irishness': Jennifer Johnston - Felicity Rosslyn
'Fiction with a Thread of Scottishness in its Truth': The Paradox of the National in A. L. Kennedy - Eluned Summers-Bremner
Lesbian Transformations of Gothic and Fairy Tale - Paulina Palmer
Demisting the Mirror: Contemporary British Women's Horror - Gina Wisker