Patrick Marnham

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A Bend in the River

Letters of Mary Wesley and Eric Siepmann 1944-1967

Darling Pol

Journeys Beneath a Nuclear Sky

Snake Dance

David Golder

Wild Mary: The Life Of Mary Wesley

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

Much of the fascination of Marnham's well-researched and admirably impartial book is that it reveals just how autobiographical Wesley's fiction was

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wild Mary is as good a literary biography as you are likely to read, its tales told with exceptional verve and wit

It's an extraordinary story. I've admired the novels of Mary Wesley since I first read them. I like the whole spirit, the zest, the frankness, they're very sexy....but I'd no idea that she'd had a life that I can only describe as raunchy... Patrick Marnham has written it very well. I'm an admirer of his work... Altogether, a very good read

Thoroughly researched, moving and highly entertaining, this portrait of a life spanning almost the entire 20th century contains a tale that would intrigue those who never read a word of Wesley's bestselling novels, while aficionados can track a steady stream of fictional parallels. Wild Mary is a page-turner of a biography, which is precisely what its subject would have wanted

An unexpurgated account of a rackety, free-spirited life that will enchant the romantics and shock the sentimentalists

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.

The authorised, and astonishing, biography of Mary Wesley.

Patrick Marnham was born in Jerusalem, educated at Oxford and is a member of the English Bar. He is the author of eleven books, has been translated into seven languages and has won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Prize, the Marsh Biography Award, and was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award in 1994. He started his career as a reporter on Private Eye and has contributed to many newspapers including The Times, Daily Telegraph, Observer, New York Times and Washington Post. He has been literary editor of the Spectator, was the first Paris correspondent of the Independent, and has worked as a BBC scriptwriter and broadcaster and as a special correspondent and war reporter.

Wild Mary: The Life Of Mary Wesley

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Much of the fascination of Marnham's well-researched and admirably impartial book is that it reveals just how autobiographical Wesley's fiction was

[A] fast-paced riveting biography

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

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

A fast-paced, riveting biography

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

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

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

A striking portrait

About Patrick Marnham

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