Can feminist writers appropriate popular genres? This book argues that they can and have done so successfully. Situating feminist writers' move into genre fiction as part of the left's interest in the popular during the 1980s, the book brings together four genres, detective fiction, science fiction, romance and fairy tale, looking in detail at works by Sara Paretsky, Gillian Slovo, Barbara Wilson, Joanna Russ, Jane Yolen and Angela Carter. It gives a history of each genre, reinstating women's contribution, to show how the genres have accomodated the cultural changes of first- and second-wave feminism. It provides a review of the feminist critical debates within each genre, highlighting the criteria and issues important to feminists in the decades from the late 1970s to the end of the 1990s. A must for anyone interested in feminism and popular genre fiction.