Book Interview: A changed world for women, told in three generations "I’ve told the story my mother probably would never have told. But I know it was of deep, deep importance to her, the way the girls were shamed and isolated”. Esther Freud. Pic: Jillian Edelstein Sun, 11 Jul, 2021 - 14:00 Interview: Sue Leonard Esther Freud Bloomsbury: €16.99. Kindle: €8.38. There's a photograph in Esther Freud’s office of a beautiful young girl in first communion bridal glory. I noticed it on the shelf behind her as we talked of her latest novel, and she said it was her late mum, Bernadine Coverley – who inspired the plot of I Couldn’t Love You More. Showing me the photo, close up, as we talk via zoom, Esther says that she looked at it a lot when she was writing the book.