Unauthorised Versions: Michele Roberts, Jeanette Winterson and the Myth of the Flood

Jeanette Winterson’s second novel, Boating for Beginners (1985), has been treated by both herself and many of her readers as an aberration. While accepting that this novel is a comic and youthful “jeu d’esprit”, this article argues that, by comparing it with Michèle Roberts’ The Book of Mrs Noah (1988), it is possible to understand how closely Winterson’s work engages with the biblical themes that were such a significant trend in women’s fiction of the period and therefore to arrive at a fairer evaluation of the novel’s effectiveness.