Es gilt als die älteste englische Autobiographie und ist nur in einer Londoner Handschrift überliefert, die nun von der British Library komplett ins Netz gestellt wurde:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_61823

Nur einer glücklichen Fügung ist es zu verdanken, dass ein englischer Landedelmann das kostbare Stück nicht verbrannte, damit es in seinem Abstellraum ordentlicher aussah.

"The manuscript’s survival story is nearly as eccentric and action-packed as that of its heroine (on which, see below). It was owned by the Butler Bowden family and the story goes that when Colonel W. Butler Bowden was looking for a ping-pong bat in a cupboard at his family home near Chesterfield in the early 1930s he came across a pile of old books. Frustrated at the disorder, he threatened to put the whole lot on the bonfire the next day so that bats and balls would be easier to find in future. Luckily a friend advised him to have the books checked by an expert and shortly afterwards Hope Emily Allen identified one as the ‘Book of Margery Kempe’, which was previously known only from excerpts printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1501, and by Henry Pepwell in 1521 (where the author is described as ‘a devoute ancres’). A true miracle!" -
See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2014/03/the-life-of-a-mystic.html#sthash.2O5lMiU6.dpuf"

Margery besuchte übrigens auch die Wallfahrten in Wilsnack und Aachen auf ihrer Pilgerreise.

GND
http://beacon.findbuch.de/seealso/pnd-aks?format=sources&id=118814699