'In this impressive study, Dr. Hughes-Edwards writes a new history of medieval English anchoritism that rivals the work of Warren's landmark 'Anchorites and their Patrons in Medieval England'. She traces, patiently and sensitively, the evolution of four centuries of anchoritic ideology, placing it in the context of a wide range of rarely considered, but remarkably innovative, theological texts. The results are profound and surprising. No scholar of medieval anchoritism or indeed the history of medieval asceticism can afford to ignore this book'. Professor Robert J. Hasenfratz, University of Connecticut 'Mari Hughes-Edwards's 'Reading Medieval Anchoritism' is comprehensive, systematic and thorough. The first study to trace anchoritic ideology over four centuries, it shows that the goal of the anchorite was not extreme suffering and privation but heightened contemplative experience. It amasses important evidence that anchorites had a range of acceptable social functions and modifies scholarship's current, fundamental, image of anchoritic enclosure as merely social death.' Professor Derek Pearsall, University of York 'Mari Hughes-Edwards's 'Reading Medieval Anchoritism' is a thoughtful and well-researched study that will be of interest to all those working on the English anchoritic tradition'. Professor Bella Millett, University of Southampton