<P> In The Friends of Voltaire, Hall wrote the phrase: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (which is often misattributed to Voltaire himself) as an illustration of Voltaire's beliefs . Hall's quotation is often cited to describe the principle of freedom of speech . </P> <P> Hall was born on 28 September 1868 in Shooter's Hill, Kent, the second of the four children of the Reverend William John Hall (1830--1910), Minor Canon of St Paul's Cathedral, and Isabella Frances (née Cooper). Her elder sister, Ethel Frances Hall (1865--1943), married the writer Hugh Stowell Scott (pseudonym Henry Seton Merriman) in 1889 . Evelyn Hall was to become an important influence in the life of her brother - in - law, with whom she co-authored two volumes of short stories, From Wisdom Court (1893) and The Money - Spinner (1896). Upon his death in 1903, Scott left £ 5,000 to Hall, writing that it was "in token of my gratitude for her continued assistance and literary advice, without which I should never have been able to have made a living by my pen ." </P> <P> Hall never married, and died in Wadhurst, East Sussex, on 13 April 1956, aged 87 . </P> <P> All publications appeared under the name S.G. Tallentyre . </P>

I do not agree with what you have to say