With an insistent emphasis on the early role of women as authors and artists and illustrated with over fifty colour plates, Hidden Hands is an important contribution to our understanding of literature and history.

Mary Wellesley studied English Language and Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford, before gaining a PhD from University College, London in 2017. She is now a full time free-lance writer but continues to teach courses on medieval language and literature as part of the British Library's Adult Learning programme. Her work has appeared in The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement, amongst others.