Its success emboldened her to risk writing The Well

Its success emboldened her to risk writing The Well of Loneliness. By then, Batten had died and Hall was in a relationship with Batten's cousin, Una Troubridge. The pair were as "out" as it was possible to be in 1920s England – a life made easier, undoubtedly, by the privileges of wealth and class, but there were furtive elements to their existence all the same. Troubridge supported Hall's decision to publish The Well, and in the spring of 1928, Hall wrote to her publisher, Jonathan Cape, to warn him: "I have put my pen at the service of some of the most persecuted and misunderstood people in the world". She added: "So far as I know nothing of the kind has ever been attempted before in fiction".