Dear Girl by Tierl Thompson, ed.

The diaries and letters (with Tierl Thompson’s excellent introduction and summaries) provides a unique record of a friendship between Ruth Slate, a clerk in a City grocery firm, and Eva Slawson, a legal secretary from Walthamstow. They met in 1902 and formed a loving friendship which Ruth called “the foundation of my life”. Ruth did not marry until after Eva’s death, while Eva’s diaries reveal her intense passion and physical relationship with Minna Simmons. Writing over twenty years, the two women give first hand accounts of some of the great suffrage rallies and of leaders like Christabel Pankhurst and Charlotte Despard. They become gradually disenchanted with orthodox religion, committed to pacifism during World War 1, and discuss the merits of “free love”. In spite of poverty, sickness and loss, the women continued to read, learn and contribute to the issues of their time, and to maintain a life-long friendship.