Mary Wesley

A vivid picture of wartime London and Cornwall through the eyes of five cousins. Behind the large house, the fragrant camomile lawn stretches down to the Cornish cliffs. Here, in the dizzying heat of August 1939, five cousins have gathered at their aunt’s house for their annual ritual of a holiday. For most of them it is the last summer of their youth, with the heady exhilarations and freedoms of lost innocence, as well as the fears of the coming war. The Camomile Lawn moves from Cornwall to London and back again, over the years, telling the stories of the cousins, their family and their friends, united by shared losses and lovers, by family ties and the absurd conditions imposed by war as their paths cross and recross over the years. It is an extraordinarily vivid and lively picture of wartime London: the rationing, imaginatively circumvented; the fallen houses; the parties; the new-found comforts of sex; the desperate humour of survival — all of it evoked with warmth, clarity and stunning wit. And through it all, the cousins and their friends try to hold onto the part of themselves that laughed and played dangerous games on that camomile lawn.

The Camomile Lawn

At the age of 18, Rose met Mylo at a party, and the two fell instantly in love. But only a year later, Rose married the wealthy, secure Ned. Now 50 years later, Ned has died, and Rose is looking back on her two relationships.

Not that Sort of Girl

A “quirky, sad, and very funny” novel about suicide, matricide, and an unlikely love, from one of England’s best-loved authors (The Guardian). Determined to end it all after the death of her husband, Matilda Poliport’s carefully laid plans to kill herself are derailed when she comes to the rescue of another potential bridge jumper—a notorious young man on the run for having murdered his mother. Faced with the choice of either turning him in to the police or continuing on with her suicide attempt, Matilda makes the obvious decision and takes Hugh Warner home to stay with her while they both sort out what to do next. As Hugh and Matilda find surprising comfort in each other, secrets about Matilda’s deceased husband are revealed, leaving Matilda to face some very uncomfortable facts about her life. And as the pair plot to help Hugh escape the law, they will both need to face the truth about themselves and how far they are willing to go for each other. This “virtuoso performance of guileful plotting, deft characterizations, and malicious wit” showcases the talents of Mary Wesley at her caustic and comical best (The Times, London).

A Novel

Jumping the Queue

An Imaginative Experience

Saving the life of an attempted sucide and discovering a mystery concerning the recent death of her husband, gives Matilda Poliport new reasons for living.

A Sensible Life

A traveller on a train smells the burn of brakes on the rails as the train stops suddenly in the countryside. Looking out the window, he sees a white-faced woman leap from the train in aid of a stranded sheep. The image lodges in his mind, a familiar despair he knows.

Matilda Poliport, recently widowed and largely estranged from her four adult children, has decided to End It All. She has cleaned her cottage, given away her beloved pet goose and burnt any incriminating letters. Now all that remains for her to do is eat her picnic, take her pills and swim out into the ocean. But her meticulously planned bid for graceful oblivion is interrupted when she foils the suicide bid of another lost soul - Hugh Warner, on the run from the police - and life begins again for them both. Life, however, is never that simple and awkward questions demand answers. What, for example, was Matilda's husband Tom doing in Paris? Why does Matilda's next door neighbour see UFOs in the skies of Cornwall? And why did Hugh kill his mother?

Jumping The Queue

On the threshold of their new life together, Margaret gave Henry a black eye and went straight to bed where she more or less remained for the rest of her life. Two young couples become regular, if uneasy, houseguests over the years, listening and speculating until finally, piecing together the rumours and the mystery, they find themselves tangled in the web of Henry’s life.

A Dubious Legacy

Henry Tillotson, a generous, genial man who inherited his father's philanthropic attitude along with his beautiful house, rescues Margaret from a disastrous marriage in Egypt and brings her home to the West Country as his new wife. On the threshold she gives him a black eye and retires straight to bed where she remains, apart from the occasional malevolent outburst, for the rest of her life. Over the years two young couples become regular if uneasy houseguests, listening, speculating, keeping a watchful eye on Margaret's door until finally, piecing together the gossip, the rumours, the mystery, they find themselves and their children thoroughly tangled in the web of Henry's life...

Poppy Carew has just been dumped by her unscrupulous boyfriend, Edmund, when her beloved and eccentric father dies, leaving Poppy one last request - that she ensure he is buried in style by a 'fun' undertaker - and one large fortune. Carrying out his wishes, Poppy finds not only a fun funeral parlour, and an equally fun wake peopled with very generous old ladies who all seem to know her father very well, but also several eligible young men, all of whom are keen to get to know the new heiress. And when Edmund remembers the charms that he quickly forgot in the arms of his new lover, Venetia, there are suddenly too many choices for Poppy Carew...

The Vacillations Of Poppy Carew

The Sixth Seal

When eleven-year-old Lisa Fuller and her younger brother Josh buy a house in the country with their winnings from a horse race, their whole family encounters strange and wonderful chaos in their new home.

Haphazard House

Three touching contemporary British novels of love, romance, and humor from the “high-spirited and inventive” international bestselling author (The Daily Telegraph). The Vacillations of Poppy Carew: Poppy embarks on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery after inheriting her father’s fortune. Traveling from England to Africa and back again, she must choose her future from a band of eccentric suitors. Not That Sort of Girl: Rose falls in love with penniless Mylo but trades love for security by marrying wealthy Ned. Although Rose vows to never leave Ned, Mylo is never far from her thoughts. As time carries on she wonders what she’d risk to be with man she loves . . . Second Fiddle: Forty-ish and fiercely independent, Laura is used to manipulating artistic men, but things change when she meets Claud, a twenty-three-year-old struggling writer. Haunted by a secret that prevents her from committing to a man, Laura must soon confront the one thing she never expected: falling in love.

The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, Not That Sort of Girl, and Second Fiddle

The Collected Novels Volume Two

Poppy Carew has just been dumped by her unscrupulous boyfriend, Edmund, when her beloved and eccentric father dies, leaving Poppy one last request - that she ensure he is buried in style by a 'fun' undertaker - and one large fortune. Carrying out his wishes, Poppy finds not only a fun funeral parlour, and an equally fun wake peopled with very generous old ladies who all seem to know her father very well, but also several eligible young men, all of whom are keen to get to know the new heiress. And when Edmund remembers the charms that he quickly forgot in the arms of his new lover, Venetia, there are suddenly too many choices for Poppy Carew.

The Vacillations of Poppy Carew

Before her death in 2002, Mary Wesley told her biographer Patrick Marnham: 'after I met Eric I never looked at anyone else again. We lived our ups and downs but life was never boring'. Eric Siepmann was her second husband and their correspondence charted their life together (and apart) with unusual candour and spirit. These remarkable letters, which were inspired by Mary's great love story with Eric, were also the means by which the novelist found her voice. Entrusted to Marnham in two size -5 shoe boxes, this is one of the great surviving post-war correspondences.

Letters of Mary Wesley and Eric Siepmann 1944-1967

Darling Pol

Hebe sits in the darkness and listens to her hypocritical grandparents and her older siblings discuss how her unexpected pregnancy must be terminated to avoid the shame it will bring. Determined to raise her child, she flees into the night with only her mother's jewellery to support her. Twelve years later she is living happily alone in Cornwall, whilst her son attends an expensive private school. Hebe has harnessed her two great talents - cooking and making love - to make a living for herself, but when the separate strands of her life become intangled the even tenor of her days is threatened, and her world changes forever.

Harnessing Peacocks

È il 1939: cinque ragazzi e la guerra. Ciascuno di loro cresce per rimanere fedele a se stesso e a coloro che ama. Cinque ragazzi, cugini tra loro, si ritrovano a casa degli zii Richard e Helen in Cornovaglia per la loro tradizionale vacanza estiva. È il 1939 e la vacanza finisce bruscamente con lo scoppio della guerra, che segna in modo irrevocabile l’esistenza di tutti. Oliver, diciannovenne e di ritorno dalla guerra di Spagna, è cambiato in tutto tranne che nel disperato amore per Calypso, bellissima ma avida e apparentemente incapace di amare. Polly e suo fratello Walter si trovano a vivere da soli a Londra e la loro casa diventa il punto di passaggio di giovani e vecchi; e Sophie, la piccolina del gruppo e orfana dalla nascita, deve continuare a vivere con gli zii, che la tollerano ma certo non la amano. La paura quotidiana della morte, l’incertezza del domani invece di rinchiudere le persone in una dimensione familiare, provoca in giovani e vecchi un’insaziabile curiosità per tutto. Alternando scene degli anni di guerra a scene ambientate negli anni ottanta il romanzo ci permette di seguire la vita dei protagonisti uniti da perdite e amori, da legami famigliari e da amici. Ciascuno di loro cresce non solo per sopravvivere ma per rimanere fedele a se stesso e a coloro che ama.

Il prato di camomilla

A young woman is forced to decide for herself just who she wants to be—and who she wants, period—in this “high-spirited and inventive” witty romance (The Daily Telegraph). Poppy Carew is at a crossroads. Her longtime boyfriend, Edmund Platt, has just left her. Her father has just passed away, leaving her a substantial sum of money he made betting on the ponies. And the undertaker for the funeral is showing an alarming amount of interest in her, as is a local farmer and a would-be author. In all, Poppy is having a strange time of it. When her father’s funeral ends with Poppy being whisked off to North Africa by Edmund—who wants her back—Poppy realizes that she must finally take charge of her life and sort through the inheritance, the suitors, and her own flighty feelings, or risk being adrift for good. Wesley’s winking look at female independence, family ties, infatuation, and love is a “fast and surprising” ride peopled with remarkable characters and unforgettably hilarious situations, proving that Wesley is a genius when it comes to smart romantic comedy (The Times Literary Supplement).

This “engaging and memorable novel,” set in post-WWI England and France, takes a wise, witty look at love, growing up, and class differences (Publishers Weekly). For the British families who vacation there, the shore town of Dinard, France, is a getaway from the ills of modern life. But when Flora Trevelyan visits with her self-absorbed parents in 1926, it’s not an escape she finds—instead, it’s a doorway into a different world, a different life, that she never knew existed. As the years pass, Flora embarks on a journey of discovery, from falling for three very different young men to understanding the follies of an upper class society of which she will never quite be a part to uncovering the difference between true friends and fair-weather companions. Along the way, her own life and those of her new acquaintances will be upended, and as the shadows of World War II fall over Europe, Flora will have to decide what kind of person she wants to be—and whether being sensible makes sense. Praised by the Daily Telegraph as “delicious,” Mary Wesley’s sharply humorous coming-of-age story weaves a tale of an unloved, neglected child who turns into a fiercely independent woman, both an entertaining romp and an astute glimpse into British society between the two World Wars.

Mary Wesley

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