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It is often all too easy to forget that significant historical figures - those at the forefront of new ways of thinking, whether that be Marxism or feminism - were individuals with likes, loves and lives of their own. Such is the case for the so-called mother of feminism , Mary Wollstoncraft (1759-1797), who history often mischaracterises as an overly serious moralist. It is this misconception that the Countess of St Andrews, Sylvana Tomaselli s new book brilliantly debunks, instead showing the pioneering womens rights activist to have been a warm mother-of-two with a love of life.