My friendships, they are a very strong part of my life, they are as light as gossamer but also they are as strong as steel. And I cannot throw them off, nor altogether do with them or without them. And I love them at the point where they say: It is nice to see you again. And I love them too at the point when they say: Good-bye, come again soon. The rhythm of friendship is a very good rhythm.

She related that her preoccupation with death began when Stevie Smith was seven at a time when Stevie Smith was very distressed at being sent away from her mother. She also wrote nine volumes of poetry. In particular Stevie Smith asks how the necessity of fighting Fascism can be achieved without descending into the nationalism and dehumanisation that fascism represents.

Florence Margaret Smith known as Stevie Smith (20 September 1902 – 7 March 1971) was an English poet and novelist.