Twelve papers focus on mysticism as an experience and on the work of individual mystics.

The proceedings of the fifth meeting include: studies of medieval mystics in continental Europe; clarification of the nature of Bridgettine spirituality through examination of the thinking that governed the practical details of their daily routine and their religous instruction; analyses of the distinctively creative quality of the writings of Julian of Norwich and of the status of visionary autobiography as a literary genre; comparison between modern philosophical understanding and that of a medieval mystic; enquiry as to what books were available and to whom in fourteenth-century Cambridge; radical questioning of the identity of the translator of the text known as Benjamin Minor traditionally ascribed to the author of the Cloud of Unknowing. Contributors: JOHN CLARK, TARJEI PARK, OLIVER DAVIES, VINCENT GILLESPIE, NICHLOLAS WATSON, KATHRYN KERBY FULTON, SASKIA MURK JANSEN, ULLA SANDER OLSEN, VERONICA LAWRENCE, GUNNEL CLEVE, SONYA SIKKA and ROGER ELLIS.

• Late 14th-century Cambridge theology and the English contemplative tradition, John Clark
• reflecting Christ - the role of the flesh in Walter Hilton and Julian of Norwich, Tarjei Park
• transformational processes in the work of Julian of Norwich and Mechtild of Magdeburg, Oliver Davies
• the apophatic image - the poetics of effacement in Julian of Norwich, Vincent Gillespie and Maggie Ross
• the Trinitarian hermeneutic in Julian of Norwich's "Revelation of Love", Nicholas Watson
• "who has written this book?" - visionary autobiography in Langland's C Text, Kathryn Kerby Fulton
• the mystical theology of the 13th-century mystic, Hadewijch and its literary expression, Saskia Murk jansen
• work and work ethics in 15th-century Syon, Ulla Sander Olsen
• Syon MS 18 and the medieval English mystical tradition, Veronica Lawrence
• Margery Kempe - a Scandinavian influence in medieval England?, Gunnel Cleve
• transcendence in death - a Heideggerian approach to via negativa in "The Cloud of Unknowing", Sonya Sikka
• author(s), compilers, scribes and Bible texts - did the "Cloud"-author translate the "Twelve Patriarchs", Roger Ellis.

Varying approaches and methodologies are imaginatively employed to deal with an array of writers, whose works are in diverse ways germane to the study of mysticism in medieval England... valuable collection. YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES