What do the women novelists Charlotte Bront , Dorothy L. Sayers, Barbara Pym, Iris Murdoch and PD James all have in common? All of these writers shared a deep commitment to the Anglican church, and were both informed and influenced by the Christian message they found there. This edited collection of essays analyses the ways in which the Anglican church's teaching can be found in the creations of these writers, ranging from Charlotte M. Yonge's depiction of church authority, to Dorothy L. Sayers' advocacy of marital submission.

Spanning writers from across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these essays explore a range of writing styles, from autobiographical writing through social comedy, and the uncanny and supernatural. They lend insights into the way these diverse women writers share a level of coherence when examined together, and in so doing enable the reader to chart the long process of Anglicanism becoming a minority religion.