MARY WESLEYA popular British novelist, who died on 30December, 2002, aged 90, Mary Wesley amazed the literary world by having herfirst book published at the age of 70.She regularly featured in the bestsellerlists and ultimately became one of the country’s most successful novelists,selling three million copies of her books.The gentle humour, compassion and irony tobe found in them earned her fans of all ages from all over the globe.“I have no patience with people who growold at 60 just because they are entitled to a bus pass,” she once commented.“Sixty should be the time to start something new, not put your feet up.”Mary Aline Mynors Farmar was born inBerkshire on 24 June, 1912. Under her parents’ assumption that she would neverhave to work for a living, she was not sent to school but instead received herminimal education under a series of foreign governesses at home.The 1930s, however, saw her regret her lackof education and she attended lectures on international politics andanthropology at the London School of Economics.As World War Two began in 1939, so too did MsWesley’s career with a stint at the War Office. “An atmosphere of terror andexhilaration and parties, parties, parties,” was how she later described thewar years.In 1952, after meeting him nearly a decadeearlier, she finally married playwright and journalist Eric Siepmann. Her firstpublished works, the children’s books ‘Speaking Terms’ and ‘The Sixth Seal’,followed in 1968 – just two years before Mr Siepmann’s death, which left Ms Wesleydevastated and, crucially, without an income.Ms Wesley’s first novel for adults, ‘Jumpingthe Queue’, hit shelves in 1983. ‘The Camomile Lawn’, easily her most famouswork about the intertwining lives of three families during World War Two,followed a year later.Such delicate, unorthodox novels soon founda wide public and met with acclaim from critics who pronounced the giftedauthoress to be “one of the most distinctive voices in English fiction.”Later life saw the publication of furtherbestsellers including ‘Harnessing Peacocks’, ‘The Vacillations of Poppy Carew’and ‘Part of the Furniture’. Her final book, about the West Country, withphotographer Kim Sayer, was published in 2001.She died following a long battle with gout,on 30 December, 2002, aged 90.Her best-known book, ‘The Camomile Lawn’,was turned into a popular television drama in 1992, starring Jennifer Ehle andFelicity Kendal.‘Harnessing Peacocks’ and ‘The Vacillationsof Poppy Carew’ were also adapted for the screen.1995 saw Ms Wesley honoured with a CBE. Shewas awarded an honorary fellowship at the London School of Economics during the1990s, having studied there nearly 60 years earlier.
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