Following an introduction that sets out the parameters of the study and preceding a final coda that moves to the Reformation, this book has six chapters all teeming with information. Working broadly chronologically, the author deals with anchoritic texts, Lives of Christ and visionary material, before focusing on a single text alongside some Books of Hours, and finishing up with the Marian Shrine at Walsingham and an early printed ballad. Overall this is a dense volume with arguments from literature, theology and art history closely compacted. The author is particularly perceptive in tracing nuanced connections between and among works, and she also provides apt translations for her Latin material.

The book's blurb states ‘that the Virgin provided a sophisticated model of reading and interpretation that was foundational to devotional practices across all spectrums of society in medieval England, and especially for enclosed female readers’. Miles first provides an interesting history of the evolution of the interpretation and iconography of the Annunciation with particular stress on Ambrose's representation of Mary as ‘“legendi studiosior” (most studious in reading)’ (p. 6), a view that by the late eleventh century was in turn ‘concurrent with a dramatic growth in the cult of the Virgin, the expansion of women's religious life and an increase in women's overall literacy and access to books’ (p. 7). In chapter i she diligently works her way through scriptural hermeneutics and interrogates a range of medieval theologians and commentators in an attempt to illustrate that ‘with book in hand, she is an independent subject with her own agency’ (p. 37). This emphasis on Mary who conceives the Word provides the spur for the rest of the volume.

Miles then proceeds with what is probably the most convincing part of her overall argument with her discussion in chapter ii of Latin anchoritic texts: Goscelin of St Bertin's Liber confortatorius for the recluse Eva and the Vita of the holy woman Christina of Markyate, alongside the English Ancrene Wisse. In these texts she thoroughly demonstrates how Mary acts as a model for these solitary women and in turn becomes herself an enclosed anchoress. Important too is the study of the main text in chapter v, Of three workings in man's soul, described here as ‘the most detailed, imaginative textual consideration of the Annunciation in Middle English’ (p. 177) and worth it merely for the detailed description in the text of Mary's posture while reading (p. 190).

Such self-reflexive links are much less apparent in chapters iii and iv on the Lives of Christ and visionary women. While there is much of interest here first in her discussion of Aelred's De institutione inclusarum and its two vernacular translations, Nicholas Love's Mirror of the blessed life of Jesus Christ and The mirror to devout people, she fails – as indeed anyone would – to answer adequately the impossible question she poses, ‘How does Mary's activity at the Annunciation illuminate scriptural reading habits in medieval England?’ (p. 84). And a similar problem persists in the tendentious examination of visionary texts. Here it is noted that the Annunciation is unusual among visionaries (either male or female), in support of which a long list is provided on p. 117 n. 3. Likewise, it is freely admitted that there is no mention of Mary reading in three of the four texts by Birgitta of Sweden, Margery Kempe or Julian of Norwich analysed here: ‘In Birgitta's visions book learning is not part of the young Virgin's portfolio of skills’ (pp. 138–9); in Julian there is ‘no study, no open scripture, no books’ (p. 150); while in Margery ‘Mary does not hold a book in her hands, but stands alone with Margery’ (p. 167). Only the Revelations of Elizabeth of Hungary and Naples that tells the story of a virginal contemplative bears up well to scrutiny here. With regard to the final chapter and its focus on Walsingham, the question ‘Why couldn't the central statue have been the Annunciation itself, with Christ and her book?’ (p. 229) – when there is no real evidence that such a thing existed – hints of desperation. Sometimes it is just not possible to find neat answers to medieval imponderables.

Mary was often depicted with a book and women in books of hours also frequently held books (which is a different matter from reading them), yet it was still hardly de riguer for all medieval commentators to focus on Mary as a reader, so sweeping generalisations about the period cannot be maintained. For example, the most widely disseminated orthodox sermon collection in medieval England, John Mirk's Festial, omits any reference to books or reading in his explication; all that concerns him is the metaphoric significance of the potted lily often found in visual representations of the Annunciation. He, like many of his contemporaries, stresses the pure subservient Mary as a model to many.

Part of the difficulty of Miles's work is that it pursues its thesis in such a single-minded fashion that not only are some arguments propelled in the face of the evidence, but other complex issues are largely elided. For instance, while much is rightly made of the association of women and books of hours, there is no attempt to connect this with the fundamental problems about female literacy in medieval England. Likewise, no real effort is taken to deal with European influences either visually or textually, even if some of the most interesting parts of the book are the images. A particularly striking one (Figure 2) depicts the Christ Child lying peacefully on the outer page edges within a very large volume with its sturdy clasp across his midriff. As argued in the oft-cited article by Susan Groag Bell, other images also demonstrate the iconic importance of books in illustrations of Mary and not just at the Annunciation. Yet this merits no proper investigation. Similarly, the fact that much of the material here owes its genesis to European traditions is largely ignored, while the influence of agenda-setting male authorities in the production of literature for female mystics is also set aside in favour of a female and Marian emphasis.

As a whole Laura Saetveit Miles has set about her work with concentrated earnestness and refreshing enthusiasm. Ultimately it is up to the individual reader whether or not he or she is won over by the argument of the Virgin Mary operating as some sort of intellectual powerhouse in the Middle Ages, but this is not to overlook the many fine aspects of this thought-provoking book.