Visiting Plas Newydd in Llangollen has made me want to know more about Elizabeth Mavor, the author of the book about the Ladies of Llangollen, which made their story and issues surrounding their sexuality of much interest in 1971 when it was published.

By chance, I knew her when she was writing the book because she used to drive me and her son Peregrine back to boarding school in a Morris Traveller after days out and we were encouraged to have intense conversations about literature which was never much talked about, at least not so intensely, at home. She was the first writer I met.

I see from her biography in the Dictionary of National Biography that there is some issue as to her sexuality. At the time, those who knew her took it for granted that her interest in the Ladies of Llangollen was not purely academic. At least, that is what I remember from listening in on conversations as a precocious thirteen-year old.