Offering a critical analysis of Scottish women's writing from its beginnings to the present day, the essays in this work cover such authors as Margaret Oliphant, Nan Sheperd, Muriel Spark and Liz Lochhead. It also examines groups of writers or kinds of writing, such as women poets and dramatists, or Gaelic writing and the legacy of the Kailyard. In addition to the poetry, drama and fiction, a varied body of non-fiction writing is also covered, including diaries, memoirs, biography and autobiography, didactic and polemic writing, and popular and periodical writing for and by women.