In the autumn of 1912, six young women at Oxford founded the Mutual Admiration Society, a writing group that changed their lives and forged a path for generations of ambitious women to come. Tracing the history of this neglected clique of artistic and social modernists, here Mo Moulton follows these extraordinary individuals, among them mystery novelist Dorothy L. Sayers; Muriel St. Clare Byrne, a Tudor expert with a revolving door of lady loves; Charis (Barnett) Frankenburg, a child-rearing expert and one of the first female Justices of the Peace; theatre director Dorothy Rowe; and Muriel "Jim" Jaeger, journalist and science fiction writer.