Editions

Second Fiddle

Second Fiddle

Laura Thornby is independent, individual and perfectly in control of her life. Her affairs are brief but delightful, her career fulfilling and she copes with her two rather peculiar relatives and the gossip about her parentage with wryness and humour.

But then she meets twenty-three-year old Claude, a struggling writer, and she is overcome by an irresistible desire to interfere, manipulate and experiment - all for his own good, of course.

What Laura does not foresee, however, are the possibilities that one day Claude may actually complete his novel and that she may well fall in love.

Reviews

  • A witty, chatty book

    The Times

  • Second Fiddle will delight the healthily growing number of Mary Wesley enthusiasts and offer a delicious treat to those who have yet to discover this unique author

    Punch

  • She writes like an avenging angel, with a freshness, vigour and zest for sex (but never for sleaze) that belie her years. The lovely Miss Wesley has a steel-tipped talent

    Sunday Telegraph

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About the Author

Mary Wesley

Mary Wesley was born near Windsor in 1912. Her education took her to the London School of Economics and during the War she worked in the War Office. She also worked part-time in the antiques trade. Mary Wesley lived in London, France, Italy, Germany and several places in the West Country. She used to comment that her 'chief claim to fame is arrested development, getting my first novel published at the age of seventy'. That first novel, Jumping the Queue, was followed by a subsequent nine bestsellers: The Camomile Lawn, Second Fiddle, Harnessing Peacocks, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, Not That Sort of Girl, A Sensible Life, A Dubious Legacy, An Imaginative Experience and Part of the Furniture. Mary Wesley was awarded the CBE in the 1995 New Year's honour list and died in 2002.

Mary Wesley

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