Margery Kempe – The Illiterate Writer

The Cathedral of Santiago in Galicia, Spain is the last of a series of churches constructed on this site since 829 AD. Image by Toutaitanous. CC BY-SA 3.0

The Book of Margery Kempe is considered to be the first autobiography ever written in the English language. It is perhaps one of the few accurate insights historians have into the life of a woman living in the Middle Ages. The Book of Margery Kempe lay forgotten for centuries until a copy was discovered.