Sara Maitland’s work began to be noticed and read by lesbian feminists in 1984 when Virgin Territory was published. But contradictions provide an opportunity, a key for looking at the assumptions which underlie them and the certainties which appear to prevail the rest of the time. Sara Maitland would probably enjoy this contradiction herself - her own work is characterised by contradictions, doubts and uncertainties. Perhaps most contradictory - and interesting - of all is that I have chosen to write about Sara Maitland because as a lesbian feminist I find her work to be more radical, more inspiring and more political than many of the more publicly heralded lesbian authors. Is she?’ to ‘Sara Maitland, isn’t she married to a vicar?’ Personally, I have no doubts at all about including Sara Maitland’s writing in a discussion on lesbian fiction, for reasons which I hope will become apparent.

Responses to this decision to date have ranged from ‘Sara Maitland isn’t a lesbian. In a discussion of lesbians in mainstream publishing I am going to start with - and keep returning to - the work of Sara Maitland. Here we reprint a slightly edited version of one chapter of the book, in which Rachel Wingfield considers the work of three novelists who have achieved mainstream literary success: Emma Donoghue, Sara Maitland and Jeanette Winterson. This article originally appeared in T&S Issue 38, Winter 1998/99.Ī new book on contemporary lesbian fiction, Beyond Sex and Romance? examines the politics of writing by lesbian authors today.

Oranges are not the only fruit feminism