Written as a diary of her experiences on a trip with her father, to whom the book was dedicated in August of 1888. In it she describes what she did and saw, and writes about English expats who were deeply involved in the trade and finance sectors of the islands’ economy. It is “ merely an attempt to describe the life of the English in the Canary Isles ...” (cf. Preface). Frances was her father Isaac’s only daughter (there were five sons), and ran his house after her mother’s death. They often travelled together and, in fact, both daughter and father wrote accounts of this trip. His "Notes of Travels in the Islands of ..."consisted of a series of letters, published by the Plymouth newspaper he owned and edited. One joint review with her father’s book patronizingly ads that she “... gives the usual amount of incidental details which seem inseparable from a lady’s diary ...”. Of course, it’s these very details that make it interesting.
They also worked together for social and benevolent causes, and were both politically active, supporting a Liberal agenda, including women’s suffrage — in later life, Frances would support of the radical suffragettes.