A.S. Byatt (1936) has become known world-wide for her award-winning novel Possession (1990). This thrilling story of romance and literary detection, spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has prompted a widespread reappraisal of Byatts entire oeuvre throughout Europe, the United States, and elsewhere, where she is often read in translation. Richard Todds assessment of Byatts literary identity treats the entire range of her writing from her earliest novels and essays to the present. Topics covered include Byatts conviction that all her writing forms part of one activity along with her astonishing range of reading; her fictional treatment of families and biographers; her belief that her characters must be portrayed as thinking being profoundly affected by joy and loss; her interest in writing about painting; and her articulately-held belief on matters such as religion and philosophy, metaphor and fairy tale.