This is a book about our concepts of literacy and its uses. It's a book about adult literacy in its broadest sense - whether in the context of training opportunities for employment, women's education, `access' to higher education, or language and literacy policies. It is a book not simply for those who actually teach those who define themselves as illiterate or dyslexic, but also for anyone interested in developing their own, and promoting other people's critical and confident reading and writing. Jane Mace explores the theory behind adult literacy education - discussing the arguments in favour of literacy, and clarifying why people who do not habitually write could find it attractive to do so. She also analyses principles by which literacy may be creatively learned, looking at five themes in detail: context, inquiry, authorship, equality and community. The book contributes to the debate on how we may describe not why people ought to want literacy, but in what ways literacy may offer us pleasure, use and interest - not least, those for whom it has hitherto represented only difficulty, unhappiness or irritation.