Criminal Women tells the stories of four women who, in attempting to become women of their own making, became deeply involved in crime. Throughout the book, tales from the underworld and the criminal business world are interspersed with inside accounts of life in the women’s prisons – Holloway, Styal’s ‘Bleak House’, Durham’s H. Wing, Askham Grange, Pucklechurch and Bullwood Hall. These stories of criminal women are vivid chronicles of the times in which they have lived. They will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the diversity of ways in which women cope with life in a class-riven and still deeply sexist society.