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.

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.