Francesca French

MC and Evangeline and Francesca French began their nomadic travels as itinerant missionaries, teaching Christianity throughout the provinces of Shensi, Kansu, Mongolia and Sinkiang, the Great Northwest of China.

China provided a centre not only for MC 's life but also for her writing. Of her nineteen works, published in the first half of the twentieth century, most describe her experiences as a traveller...

MC and Evangeline and Francesca French made another journey, of over 6,000 miles, from Suchow to London via the Gobi Desert, Russia, and the rest of Europe for one of their leaves in England.

This book arose from MC 's experiences at the first mission she visited in China. While she retains sole authorship, MC acknowledges the important role of the Frenchsisters in the book's production, saying...

During a period of civil unrest in China, MC and Evangeline and Francesca French returned home on leave to London via Siberia, Moscow, and Berlin.

Most comment on The Gobi Desert disregards the question of its authorship in favour of discussing the three women's extraordinary lives together.

Friends from HW 's time at Somerville included Maude Clarke , whom she had known as a child and whose Oxford position had been one of the incentives to go there, and archaelogist Helen Lorimer