It would be curious to discover who it is to whom one writes in a diary. Possibly to some mysterious personification of one's own identity."
-Beatrice Potter Webb, My Apprenticeship
In My Apprenticeship (1926), Beatrice Potter Webb provided the first of several memoirs based on diaries she kept. It begins the story of her life starting at the age of 4 and describes her development as a social activist and writer, concluding with the events immediately preceding her marriage to Sidney Webb in 1892 at age 36. Having made a commitment to social improvement while still in school, Beatrice Potter described the stress she had to endure as a woman and a professional who abandoned a life of abundance to work in the squalor of London's East End.