Wild Mary: The Life Of Mary Wesley

Author: Patrick Marnham
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448181291
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
Mary Wesley published her first novel at seventy and went on to write a further nine bestsellers, including the legendary 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, Patrick Marnham's brilliantly researched and wonderfully impartial book disentangles truth from rumour, highlighting the links between Wesley's real life and her fiction.

Wild Mary: a Life of Mary Wesley

Author: Patrick Marnham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description

The Camomile Lawn

Author: Mary Wesley
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 144644337X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description
Escape to the Cornish cliffs in the dizzying heat of August 1939, where five cousins are making the most of the last summer of their youth. Oliver is just back from the Spanish Civil War and world-weary at only nineteen. Calypso is gorgeous, utterly selfish and determined to marry for money. Polly and Walter, brother and sister, play their cards close to their chests. Then there's little Sophie, who nobody loves. Soon the world will be swept into war again and the five cousins will enter a whirligig of sex, infidelity, love and loss, but for now they have one last, gaspingly hot summer at the house by the cliffs with the camomile lawn. A beloved bestseller from an author ahead of her time, The Camomile Lawn is a waspishly witty, devil-may-care delight.

Part of the Scenery

Author: Mary Wesley
Publisher: Bantam Books
ISBN: 9780593047170
Category : Novelists, English
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
This book will follow Mary in words and pictures through her life in the West Country from her early visits to Polzeth in Cornwall in 1914 to the present day living and working in Totnes. Drawing on her own life, and also remembering how her words were inspired by many of the places she visited or made her home, it will be part-memoir, part-nostalgia of the West Country that has meant so much to her over the years. Most of the photography is original and will be beautiful and intriguing in its own right without losing its relevence to Mary or her books.

An Imaginative Experience

Author: Mary Wesley
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446443396
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
A train screeches to a halt in the middle of the English countryside and, observed by her fascinated fellow travellers, a woman climbs down and rushes to the aid of a sheep, stranded on its back and unable to rise. Sylvester Weekes watches with interest and noticing, as she turns, that her face is full of tragedy, the woman's lonely image lodges in his mind. But he is not the only one to speculate over her actions - Maurice Benson, former private detective turned full-time birdwatcher, is convinced that the mysterious woman must be tracked down, in whatever way possible. This is a story rich in character and wit, and powerfully moving in its exploration of the heart's pain and deliverance. It is a tale of loss, of release, of an acceptance of the cruelties of fate and of the imaginative experience of love.

Jumping the Queue

Author: Mary Wesley
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480450561
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
A “quirky, sad, and very funny” novel about suicide, matricide, and an unlikely love, from one of England’s best-loved authors (The Guardian). Determined to end it all after the death of her husband, Matilda Poliport’s carefully laid plans to kill herself are derailed when she comes to the rescue of another potential bridge jumper—a notorious young man on the run for having murdered his mother. Faced with the choice of either turning him in to the police or continuing on with her suicide attempt, Matilda makes the obvious decision and takes Hugh Warner home to stay with her while they both sort out what to do next. As Hugh and Matilda find surprising comfort in each other, secrets about Matilda’s deceased husband are revealed, leaving Matilda to face some very uncomfortable facts about her life. And as the pair plot to help Hugh escape the law, they will both need to face the truth about themselves and how far they are willing to go for each other. This “virtuoso performance of guileful plotting, deft characterizations, and malicious wit” showcases the talents of Mary Wesley at her caustic and comical best (The Times, London).

A Sensible Life

Author: Mary Wesley
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480449946
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Book Description
This “engaging and memorable novel,” set in post-WWI England and France, takes a wise, witty look at love, growing up, and class differences (Publishers Weekly). For the British families who vacation there, the shore town of Dinard, France, is a getaway from the ills of modern life. But when Flora Trevelyan visits with her self-absorbed parents in 1926, it’s not an escape she finds—instead, it’s a doorway into a different world, a different life, that she never knew existed. As the years pass, Flora embarks on a journey of discovery, from falling for three very different young men to understanding the follies of an upper class society of which she will never quite be a part to uncovering the difference between true friends and fair-weather companions. Along the way, her own life and those of her new acquaintances will be upended, and as the shadows of World War II fall over Europe, Flora will have to decide what kind of person she wants to be—and whether being sensible makes sense. Praised by the Daily Telegraph as “delicious,” Mary Wesley’s sharply humorous coming-of-age story weaves a tale of an unloved, neglected child who turns into a fiercely independent woman, both an entertaining romp and an astute glimpse into British society between the two World Wars.

Not that Sort of Girl

Author: Mary Wesley
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099499126
Category : Adultery
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
For the whole of Rose's respectable married life she had kept faith with two men. To Ned she was a perfect wife, mother of his son and elegant hostess. To Mylo, she was an impetuous and unconventional mistress, answering his calls through 50 years of duplicity. When Ned dies, Rose chooses her new future.

Harnessing Peacocks

Author: Mary Wesley
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446443418
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Hebe sits in the darkness and listens to her hypocritical grandparents and her older siblings discuss how her unexpected pregnancy must be terminated to avoid the shame it will bring. Determined to raise her child, she flees into the night with only her mother's jewellery to support her. Twelve years later she is living happily alone in Cornwall, whilst her son attends an expensive private school. Hebe has harnessed her two great talents - cooking and making love - to make a living for herself, but when the separate strands of her life become intangled the even tenor of her days is threatened, and her world changes forever.

Simply Magic

Author: Mary Balogh
Publisher: Dell
ISBN: 0440241987
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
On a splendid August afternoon Susanna Osbourne is introduced to the most handsome man she has ever seen . . . and instantly feels the icy chill of recognition. Peter Edgeworth, Viscount Whitleaf, is utterly charming—and seemingly unaware that they have met before. With his knowing smile and seductive gaze, Peter acts the rake; but he stirs something in Susanna she has never felt before, a yearning that both frightens and dazzles her. Instantly she knows: this brash nobleman poses a threat to her heart . . . and to the secrets she guards so desperately. From the moment they meet, Peter is drawn to Susanna’s independence, dazzled by her sharp wit—he simply must have her. But the more he pursues, the more Susanna withdraws . . . until a sensual game of thrust-and-parry culminates in a glorious afternoon of passion. Now more determined than ever to keep her by his side, Peter begins to suspect that a tragic history still haunts Susanna. And as he moves closer to the truth, Peter is certain of one thing: he will defy the mysteries of her past for a future with this exquisite creature—all Susanna must do is trust him with the most precious secret of all. . . .