Highly intelligent, (she took and passed three degrees, in botany, geography and geology, in the same year), Marie Stopes was also rather eccentric. Following a disastrous first marriage, which was never consummated, she published Married Love in 1918, one of the first serious sex manuals. Her next book Wise Parenthood included information on birth control.
In 1921, Marie Stopes opened Britain's first family planning clinic, in North London. While it provided a much wanted service for local women, it in part reflected Marie's eugenicist views, encouraging the lower classes to have fewer children. Marie Stopes became involved in several other campaigns included the ending of the marriage bar for teachers and separate taxation for husband and wife.
