Wild Mary: The Life Of Mary Wesley

[A] fast-paced riveting biography

Valerie Grove, The Times

A striking portrait not only of an amazing, if strange, woman but of an entire social class

Rachel Cooke, Evening Standard

Unpicks the complicated web of deceits and half-truths that surrounded much of her life with wit, patience and skill, providing just the sort of compelling read that Wesley did in her novel

Independent

This biography is pure pleasure, a riveting, hilarious tragicomedy of manners... Marnham has disentangled truth from rumour, clarified the many connections between Wild Mary's rackety life and Mary Wesley's fiction, and produced a generous, unsentimental and intelligent portrait of a woman's life and times

Spectator

A fast-paced, riveting biography

The Times

Everyone will want to read her story, and I hope they do

Carole Angier, Sunday Telegraph

Wonderfully readable... a treat of a book: gossipy and funny, but also acutely aware of the currents that pushed this extraordinary woman into producing a body of wise and moving work at an age when most people are getting ready for the grave

Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday

Excellent... Marnham has also succeeded in melding this complex narrative with a great deal of historical detail... Wesley was also deeply loved, and Marnham has done a very capable job of explaining why that should be so

Rebecca Seal, Obsever

A striking portrait

Daily Mail