Women writing home, 1700-1920 : female correspondence across the British Empire

"Women Writing Home" assembles a wide range of women's letters from the former British Empire, in the most comprehensive, modern and scholarly reset edition to date.

These letters 'written home' are not only straightforward historical sources; they are also representations of the state of the Empire in far-off lands sent home to Britain and, occasionally, other centres established as 'home'.

The letters reveal the many different ways in which women perceived colonial society.

Sometimes the new context offered opportunities unavailable at home but often these letter-writing women pined for what they had left behind. Organised by geographical region, the set pays close attention to the regional and local specificities of colonial situations in various parts of the British Empire: from the settler colonies of North America, Australia and New Zealand to the isolated military and administrative outposts in Asia and the complex ethnic and economic situation of South Africa.

These six volumes of letters are an important research tool for those working in a wide range of disciplines, from history to economics, from literature to cultural and gender studies.Most of the letters have never before been published.

It is based on new transcriptions of manuscript sources from archives around the world.

There is a consolidated index.