Mary Wesley published her first novel at seventy and went on to write a further nine bestsellers, including The Camomile Lawn, in a style best described as arsenic without the old lace.
Many of her stories were inspired by her experiences during the Blitz, and by her marriages: the first to an aristocrat, a brief and conventional affair, and the second to a penniless writer she adored. A remarkable book about a remarkable woman, this brilliantly researched biography by Patrick Marnham disentangles truth from rumour and highlights the links between Mary Wesley’s real life and her fiction.
Plenty to Say
A few months after my mother died, my sister and I returned home to clear out her possessions. I felt unsentimental about most of them. I readily threw away clothes, keeping only a cardigan that was...
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