Miss Stretton, real name Sarah Smith, was the daughter of Wellington’s first postmaster Benjamin Smith, who owned a booksellers and stationery business in the town at 14 New Street. The wide range of books in her father’s shop provided much of the young writer’s initial inspiration, although the strong puritanical streak that ran through much of her work was provided by her mother, who died when Sarah was just eight years old. However, it was not until the age of 27 that she received her break as an author, by which time she had begun to write under the pseudonym Hesba Stretton. The surname was borrowed from her favourite Shropshire village, All Stretton, where she returned to visit relatives throughout her life, while ‘Hesba’ was an acronym of the initials of her five brothers and sisters.