Some books are worth reading for the introduction alone, and this is an example of one. Subtitled “An Alternative History of English Literature”, it looks at the lives of eight women who had the audacity, nous, and sheer determination to assert their right to write in their chosen field. The title comes from the author’s first ambition to discover a woman in the Bible who may have actually written something. Alas the Patriarchs, and they were all men, seem to have had the writing honours all sewn up, and in the introduction Beer looks at how women were reduced to two main sorts – Eve, who not only sinned but cause Adam to greater sin, and Mary, mother of Jesus, role model for women for all time. Sinner and saint have thus been adopted into the background of women and creative output, that they are constitutionally unable to write, that they should only do so under strict rules and parameters, that if they write something good it’s remarkable but obviously not going to last. Writing under male pseudonym could get you some favourable attention, but it will only get you so far, and other women will not be impressed apparently. Even if a woman produces something truly exceptional there are ways for it to be ignored, Beer argues, or someone will produce a distraction. There is always the “Matilda Effect”, where it will be assumed that a man really came up with the idea, because that’s how it was done then. This is a truly exceptional book from which I learnt a lot in a very readable narrative.