Esther Birney died on July 20, 2006. Having long managed a series of literary lectures at Brock House in Vancouver, she was remembered by UBC English professor Ronald Hatch: "Many members of the English Department gave talks at her series of literature lectures at Brock House, a series that is still ongoing. In speaking with other members of the department, I know that she is remembered with great affection. People still speak of Esther's warm greeting and her vibrant introductions. Especially appreciated were the stimulating conversations after the lecture over lunch. Amongst the English Department there is also the memory of her fierceness in debate, her refusal to accept half-truths. There is more than one lecturer who recalls being pushed to sharpen a particular argument, and in truth it was a strong speaker who could stand up to the queries of Esther Birney, especially when Hilda Thomas and Peter Remnant joined her. I was particularly fond of having her talk about her own responses to culture, for they were never half-hearted. There are still those who may recall what she had to say about Benjamin Britten's 'dissonant' Peter Grimes on the occasion when I came to speak about George Crabbe, who wrote the original poem. At an age when many people are settling for short books, Esther embarked on the complete Proust, and remarked how much she enjoyed being involved in the vastness of Proust's design. It was refreshing to hear her talk about her political activism, her Trotskyism in the 1930s, when she and Earle lived in a tiny caravan on the Dorset coast, in Hardy country. Her struggle for social justice never left her. Most of all, however, I remember a woman overflowing with life, an example to all of us."