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.

"Extraordinarily accomplished and fast-moving" Financial Times "A very good book indeed...has the texture and smell of real life, rich in detail, careful and subtle in observation, mature in judgement" -- Susan Hill "It is hard to overpraise Mary Wesley's novel...exceptional grace and understanding...so tingling and spry with life that put a mirror to the book and I'll almost swear it will mist over with the breath of the five young cousins" The Times

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.

"Extraordinarily accomplished and fast-moving" Financial Times "A very good book indeed...has the texture and smell of real life, rich in detail, careful and subtle in observation, mature in judgement" -- Susan Hill "It is hard to overpraise Mary Wesley's novel...exceptional grace and understanding...so tingling and spry with life that put a mirror to the book and I'll almost swear it will mist over with the breath of the five young cousins" The Times