Mary Hays was born in 1759 into a middle class family in the London borough of Southwark. An independent spirit, at the age of 32 she was given a copy of Mary Wollstonecraft's 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman', and immediately became a convert to its proto-feminist philosophy. Writing under the pseudonym 'Eusebia', Hays published extensively, and was introduced to the reformer William Frend, a meeting which, for Hays, soon blossomed into something more than mere friendship. Against all contemporary social mores, Hays confessed her love to William Frend in explicit terms - but was...