Louisa Stuart Costello (1799-1870) was a critically acclaimed poet, novelist, travel writer, historian, and artist. Here, Broom Saunders provides a wealth of extracts from her diverse writings, a rich source of information about the pioneering career of a professional woman writer, and insight into a nineteenth-century writing life.

Clare Broome Saunders teaches is a Research Fellow in English at the University of Oxford, UK. She has published widely on nineteenth-century poetry, uses of history, and women travel writers in Europe, including Women Writers and Nineteenth-Century Medievalism and Women, Travel Writing, and Truth.