Vacillations Of Poppy Carew

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. Although she initially fulfilled her parent's expectations in marrying an aristocrat she then scandalised them when she divorced him in 1945 and moved in with the great love of her life, Eric Siepmann. The couple married in 1952, once his wife had finally been persuaded to divorce him. She used to comment that her 'chief claim to fame is arrested development, getting my first novel [Jumping the Queue] published at the age of seventy'. She went on to write a further nine novels, three of which were adapted for television, including the best-selling The Camomile Lawn. Mary Wesley was awarded the CBE in the 1995 New Year's honour list and died in 2002.

"Prances and bubbles along with the gay insouciance of a compulsive storyteller" Observer "Mary Wesley is high-spirited and inventive, and keeps her wayward plot moving forward at a spanking pace" Daily Telegraph "Wesley's narration is as fast and surprising as ever; her subplots are well worked out and rich in detail" Times Literary Supplement "A charming love story and social comedy" -- Philip Howard The Times "Once again she deploys her admirably comic skill to good effect; puncturing the pompous, exposing humbug, nudging our perceptions in the direction of the absurd" Financial Times