A circle of sisters : Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin

Judith Flanders chronicles the lives and discusses the literary works of the Macdonald sisters.

Each of these extraordinary women were either married to or mothers of an eminent male figure in the arts or politics: Alice was mother of the poet Rudyard Kipling, Georgina married Edward Burne-Jones the pre-Raphaelite painter, Agnes married Edward Poynter, the President of the Royal Academy and Louisa was mother to the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin.

The book concentrates on the environment in which the sisters grew up, their reliance on each other and how, in a time when women's achievements were limited by men, they were not only part of the guiding force behind such celebrated males but also created works of poetry and novels themselves.