'The letters Walter and Mary Richardson wrote to each other between 1854 and 1877 depict, with often surprising frankness, a loving relationship between a man and a woman that was both mutual and enduring. Aspects of their relationship were used in their daughter's classic trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony. Henry Handel Richardson and her later biographers, however, tended to focus more on the man than on the woman. Certainly, many more letters from Walter survive, and Mary's letters are much more difficult to read in the original. However, they reveal her to be at least Walter's equal in passion and devotion.' Source: Book jacket.