Product Description

Mary Wesley famously began writing at the age of 70. Her ten best-selling novels won her thousands of fans, and described a world that she had known in her youth - the world of war-time London, with its fear and high-spirits and casual sex. They created an image of Mary that her fans took to their hearts, but it was an image that was carefully created and one that raised more questions than it answered. The real Mary Wesley had lived a life more fascinating, scandalous and passionate than any she created for her heroines. Behind the legend of Mary Wesley the novelist, was another woman, Mary Siepmann, who guarded her privacy fiercely. In the last year of her life she decided to reveal more of herself to her biographer, Patrick Marnham. Through hours of interviews and access to Mary's diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs, Patrick Marnham discovered her extraordinary true story. It is a story of near-suicide and reckless courage and tells of how a passionate and headstrong woman, born into a ruling class in decline turned her back on her privileged position; she knew both poverty and fame, but more than anything succeeded in living life on her own uncompromising terms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116911 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

The Sunday Times
'Brilliantly sensitive and evocative biography'

Telegraph - Rev'd Heather Thompson
`Marnham's entertaining biography.'

The Scotsman T
'5 star'

Customer Reviews

A fair description
I have always enjoyed reading Mary Wesley's books. I enjoy her unique phraseology, for instance 'the matricide' in Jumping the Queue is never named, and her unusual use of verbs. From her biography we learn of her scant formal education, her enormous joie de vivre, her uncritical attitude to the morals of her age. We understand how her books confront some of the difficulties she faced in her life and she how she exorcised painful memories through the triumph of her characters. I ended the book feeling more than ever that I would have liked to have known her personally.

I would never have guessed
I very much enjoyed Mary Wesley's books themelves - but had always imagined Mary herself as an ex school teacher character who hadn't started writing until she retired. I had never read, heard or seen anything about Mary herself, other than as a brief mention about her not starting to write until she was 70. My surprise was extreme therefore to find Mary was absolutely and completly different to how I had assumed. Certainly the rather unconventional characters and situations that abound in her own books now make sense and are obviously very much the based upon her own life, family and friends. This biography has obviously been very well researched and is very readable - it also seems to me to paint a relatively unbiased picture of a fascinating woman. A woman that one does not always feel sympathy with - but who obviously had many many facets to her character, some good some bad just like the rest of us. Certainly worth a read.