This book is a systematic linguistic study of, and commentary upon, Julian of Norwich's A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman.

Luke Penkett draws attention to the medieval anchoress's stylistic brilliance, clarifies complicated passages for the twenty-first century reader, and summarises and builds upon the wisdom of the most up-to-date scholarly research to inspire fresh insight of what is the earliest record of a woman writing in the English language. Penkett gives context to Julian's writing with a survey of other English literary texts of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.