Sara Maitland Biography

British novelist and short-story writer, born in London, educated at Oxford University, where she became interested in reconciling feminist principles with Christianity. Her first novel, Daughter of Jerusalem (1978; Somerset Maugham Prize, 1979), was a feminist reworking of Old and New Testament stories and concerned women and fertility. Feminist themes were similarly explored in her novel Virgin Territory (1984) and in a collection of essays, A Map of the New Country (1983), examining the role of women in the Christian Church. Three Times Table (1990) is set in a London house during a single night, in which three women of different generations reflect upon the choices they have made and the significant options open to them. Home Truths (1993), which probes the dynamics of a large family and unravels self-deceipt, was followed by Hagiographies (1996). Maitland has also published several volumes of short stories, including Telling Tales (1983), which includes a feminist version of the Creation myth and an account of the life of a female Pope, A Book of Spells (1987), and Women Fly when Men Aren't Watching (1993). She has also published a book of Greek myths, Pandora's Box (1995).