10. Writers from the British Isles

This chapter reviews 225 women writers, 1776-1848, from the British Isles, divided into Great Britain in the 18th Century, Great Britain in the 19th Century, and Ireland. Great Britain is thus divided because of the great number of women writers identified. Welsh, Manx, and Scottish writers are separately identified with the British list; 33 Scottish writers appear, but national divisions reflect realities on the ground in the present day, where Ireland is independent, and Scotland is not. Writers range from duchesses to adventuresses, from Bluestockings to Irish oral poets, from weavers to those in debtors’ prison to the mistress of the Prince of Wales. Genres cover theatre, lyric and epic verse, novels, journalism, philosophy and science.