Julian of Norwich was the first woman in the world to write a book in English, and yet had largely disappeared from view until her rediscovery during the twentieth century. A fourteenth century anchoress in Norwich, she lived in a cell for forty years, surrounded by savage plague, political inequality and religious bigotry. Yet Julian gave the world one of its most famous calls to hope: 'All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.' Who was she? Why did she pray for a near-death experience and then choose containment in a cell? And how did she come to speak with such optimism? In The Secret Testament of Julian , she tells her own story, full of difficulty and joy. No plaster saint, but a flesh and blood woman who from the silence of her cell speaks with a strength that few today can equal. Let Julian tell her story.