Wild Mary: A Life of Mary Wesley - Hardcover

Marnham, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701179910 ISBN 13: 9780701179915

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2006

Synopsis

The extraordinary life of novelist Mary Wesley who, in her 70s and 80s, wrote ten amazingly sexy novels, including The Camomile Lawn, which was made into a TV series.

Born Mary Farmar (Wesley was a pen-name, derived from the family name of Wellesley), descended from the Duke of Wellington, she grew up a rebel, believing that she was her mother’s least favourite child. Like many girls of her background, she married for escape, although her first marriage (to Lord Swinfen) was conventional. Her second husband, Eric Siepmann, a writer who never managed to make any money at all, was feckless and bohemian. In between Swinfen and Siepmann, she had a love affair with Czech war hero, Heinz Ziegler — and possibly with his brother at the same time; and in her later years enjoyed a torrid relationship with Robert Bolt.
At the outbreak of the Second World War she was, as she put it, “roped into intelligence,” where she worked on breaking codes. Her experiences in MI5, and her many wartime love affairs, which form the core of this biography, also formed the cores of her novels.

Mary Wesley published her first novel when she was 70, and went on to write nine more bestsellers before her death in 2002 at the age of 89. She, herself, selected Patrick Marnham as her biographer.

About this title

About the Author

Patrick Marnham is the biographer of George Simenon and Diego Rivera, and his books have won the Thomas Cook Travel Prize and the Marsh Biography Award.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0701179910
• ISBN 13: 9780701179915
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352