This entertaining anthology of sixteen stories, authored between 1200 and 1485, were originally tailored towards a secular audience. Most of the martyrs are spirited teenage girls, preyed upon by men, in some cases by their father, and subjected to imaginative and horrific punishments with a surprising lack of pain. Saints include Margaret, Lucy, Katherine, Agnes, Winifrid and the unusual Eugenia who lived disguised as a monk and was accused of rape. The stories are drawn from across Britain by authors including Chaucer and Lydgate and have been translated into modern English.