This volume in the Royal Historical Society's Camden Fifth Series is a comprehensive edition of the only surviving northern medieval letter collection.

The Stonor letters and papers form one of only three surviving archives of gentry correspondence from late medieval England. The collection - which includes documents ranging from love letters to household accounts - provides us with a wealth of otherwise unobtainable detail about the lives and careers of a gentry family, their servants and their friends. Much of the material comes from the period of the Wars of the Roses, and allows us an insider's view on national events and the people involved in them. Originally edited by the historian C. L. Kingsford at the beginning of the century, the complete collection is reissued here, with a new introduction and annotation by Christine Carpenter. In many ways more representative of gentry life than the Paston letters, the Stonor letters and papers will be invaluable to scholars of late medieval England, and will make fascinating reading for anyone interested in the Wars of the Roses or life in medieval England.

The essays in this volume provide an up-to-date and authoritative guide to the major prose Middle English authors and genres. Each chapter is written by a leading authority on the subject and offers a succinct account of all relevant literary, history and cultural factors that need to considered, together with bibliographical references. Authors examined include the writers of the Ancrene Wisse, the Katherine Group and the Wohunge Group; Richard Rolle; Walter Hilton; Nicholas Love; Julian of Norwich; Margery Kempe; "Sir John Mandeville"; John Trevisa, Reginald Pecock; and John Fortescue. Genres discussed include romances, saints' lives, letters, sermon literature, historical prose, anonymous devotional writings, Wycliffite prose, and various forms of technical writing. The final chapter examines the treatment of Middle English prose in the first age of print. Contributors: BELLA MILLETT, RALPH HANNA III, AD PUTTER, KANTIK GHOSH, BARRY A. WINDEATT, A.C. SPEARING, IAN HIGGINS, A.S.G. EDWARDS, VINCENT GILLESPIE, HELEN L. SPENCER, ALFRED HIATT, FIONA SOMERSET, HELEN COOPER, GEORGE KEISER, OLIVER S. PICKERING, JAMES SIMPSON, RICHARD BEADLE, ALEXANDRA GILLESPIE.

The first major socio-cultural study of manuscript letters and letter-writing practices in early modern England. Daybell examines a crucial period in the development of the English vernacular letter before Charles I's postal reforms in 1635, one that witnessed a significant extension of letter-writing skills throughout society.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.