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MARNHAM**, PATRICK: : Wild Mary - A LIFE OF MARY WESLEY

LONDON.CHATTO & WINDUS,2006.

ISBN 0701179910.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn,4th imp.[Complete number line 4 6 8 10 9 7 5.] FINE/FINE-. No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Subject's bright,crisp,clean,matt b/w portrait photograph to front panel with glossy pale blue,pale pink and white lettering,similar coloured lettered spine/backstrip and a montage'd b/w portrait photograph to war-time dance hall b/w photographic background illustrated rear panel of dw/dj; with negligible shelf-wear to edges and corners.A small 1.5cm puncture at rear spine/backstrip's gutter's fold/crease - without penetration to,or affecting board beneath - and no other nicks, tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean with minimal toning; contents bright, tight,clean,solid and sound,foxing-free - virtually pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner,appears unread apart from my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp, unblemished,sharp-cornered,original,plain pale grey cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt lettered spine/backstrip and immaculate plain black endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn,4th imp,2-289pp [paginated] includes author's Introduction,Pts 1-4 and an Epilogue comprising 4,4,5 and,4 chapters respectively, Survivors and others,author's Note,24pp contemporary auto+biographical photographs in 3 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp86/7,pp150/51 and pp198/9 respectively,Acknowledgements,Source notes and an Index; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,separate Contents and Illustrations lists/tables,an epigram and to the rear,4pp blanks. Mary Wesley published her first novel when she was 70,and went on to write 9 more bestsellers including the dazzling 'The Camomile Lawn', which was made into a TV series,before her death in 2002 at the age of 89. Wesley was a pen name,derived from the family name of Wellesley.She was born Mary Farmar descended from the Duke of Wellington,and grew up a rebel who believed that she was her mother's least favourite child.Like many girls of her background,she married for escape.She herself summarised the pre-War years as: 'God! When I think of the time I've wasted going to bed with old Etonians.'                          Her first marriage to Lord Swinfen was brief and conventional.In the late 1930s,she began a fascination with Heinz Ziegler,a Czech university professor and wartime air gunner; his brother,Paul,later a Benedictine monk,also fell under her spell.In 1944,she met her adored second husband,Eric Siepmann,a writer who never managed to make any money at all from writing. Their marriage,which was mercurial and bohemian, lasted until his death.In her later years she enjoyed a relationship with playwright Robert Bolt. n between Swinfen and Siepmann,she had a love affair with Czech war hero,Heinz Ziegler, and possibly with his brother at the same time,and in her later years enjoyed a torrid relationship with Robert Bolt. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was,as she put it,'roped into Intelligence', where she worked on breaking codes.MI5 and her many rackety life during the Blitz eventually inspired her novels,many of which were concerned with multiple wartime love affairs.She wrote about the atmosphere of the home front,and how the imminence of death loosens the inhibitions, her fiction was as sexy and as candid as she was herself.She drew on her eccentric friends and her love of Cornwall and the West Country,while the darkness of her novels was illuminated by a caustic sense of the ridiculous.Her style has been described as arsenic without the old lace.  'Wild Mary' is a remarkable book about a woman who was courageous,sensual,talented and ruthless.Readers will enjoy her story not only for its witty anecotes and devastating one-liners,but also for the intimate portrait it builds of a multi-layered personality in which much was hidden.Mary Wesley talked freely to the author - yet took some of her screts to the grave, leaving behind a number of fascinating clues. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!  N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE.  ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware:  Standard AIRMAIL to these destinations can now, in some cases,cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn,4th imp.
Not SIGNED.

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