mary wesley

Author

1912 - 2002

Suggested by Rose Whitaker

Rose writes, “Mary Wesley wrote several best-selling novels often set in Cornwall and didn’t start to write until she was 71. During her career, she was one of Britain’s most successful novelists, selling three million copies of her books, including ten bestsellers in the last twenty years of her life.

I find her novels very engaging. She reminds me in some ways of my deceased mother, who attempted suicide, using a method Mary Wesley wrote about. Luckily Mum was rescued in time! I find it inspiring that Mary Wesley didn’t reach success as an author until much later in life, driven by the need to make funds.”

Ed. extracts from Wikipedia, “Some of Wesley’s books were made into popular films and tv series, most notably,˜The Chamomile Lawn” (1984), an account of the intertwining lives of three families in rural England during World War II set in West Penwith near St Buryan. After that came Harnessing Peacocks (1985), The Vacillations of Poppy Carew (1986), Not That Sort of Girl (1987), Second Fiddle (1988), A Sensible Life (1990), A Dubious Legacy (1992), An Imaginative Experience (1994) and Part of the Furniture (1997). When asked why she had stopped writing fiction at the age of 84, she replied: “If you haven’t got anything to say, don’t say it.”

Her books reveal a sharp take on life, dissecting the idiosyncrasies of genteel England with humour, compassion and irony, and detailing sexual and emotional values. Her style has been described as “Jane Austen plus sex”, a description Wesley herself thought ridiculous. As a woman who was liberated before her time, Wesley challenged social assumptions about the old, confessed to bad behaviour and recommended sex. In doing so she smashed the stereotype of the disapproving, judgmental, past-it, old person. This delighted the old and intrigued the young.”