This book was conceived as a memorial to MC
's youngest sister, Hester, who had been a writer like her but had died without publishing anything. In the introduction MC explains how, looking through Hester
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Cholmondeley
Benson's mother, Caroline Essex Benson
, was one of Mary's younger sisters. Another sister, Hester
, who was frail in health, also wrote: as well as poetry she produced journals which extended to 222,000 words...