Finished 'Camomile Lawn' last night and just started 'Harnessing Peacocks' all three books so far exceed memory. I'd not realised it was so long since she died...

Tuesday, 31 December, 2002, 13:34 GMT
Author Mary Wesley dies
Mary Wesley
Wesley's last book was about her life in Devon
Author Mary Wesley, who wrote The Camomile Lawn, has died at the age of 90.

Wesley was seen as one of the UK's finest authors after having her first novel published when she was 70.

She died at her home in Totnes, Devon, on Monday.

She was someone who started a new wave of writing
Tony Eady
Son

The Camomile Lawn, a delicate story of a family's last holiday before World War II, was her most famous work.

It was turned into a television drama starring Felicity Kendal and Jennifer Ehle in 1991.

"She was a deeply feminine woman who wrote about being a woman in a way which had not been done before," her son, literary agent Tony Eady said.

He said she "started a new wave of writing".

Other well-known works included Jumping the Queue, An Imaginative Experience and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew.

Born Mary Aline Mynors Farmar in Berkshire in 1912, Wesley worked for the War Office during World War II.

She wrote two children's books in 1969, and the death of her second husband, journalist Eric Siepmann, in 1970, left her almost penniless.

Sixty should be the time to start something new, not put your feet up
Mary Wesley
Recent interview

Her first novel, Jumping the Queue, was not published until 1983, and The Camomile Lawn became her first commercial success the following year.

"I have no patience with people who grow old at 60 just because they are entitled to a bus pass," she said in a recent interview.

"Sixty should be the time to start something new, not put your feet up."

One critic described her as "one of the most distinctive voices in English fiction" while others praised her use of "gutsy" heroines who were strong and often shocking.

Her last book, Part of the Scenery, published in 2001, was about her life in Devon and her memories of the area.

Another bit from a story about a spanko virgin.This one is a college lecturer and member of the Sealed Knot and is not based on anyone I've ever met (Honest, Guv!)

...but that was the trouble with women – One minute you’re their knight in shining armour and the next the rubbish needs taking out as he often thought. It was no wonder he cherished memories of his first love and settled for brief encounters of the sexual kind. Of course if Celia had run away with him it would all have been different…
Sadly for Gareth he’d not found his soul mate still. Although Celia along with his first love was now his excuse for not settling down still, deep down he knew she was not truly the one for him; after all despite her enthusiasm for illicit couplings in the church hall she wasn’t exactly the sort of girl you could put across your knee for a damned good spanking… funnily enough, he could imagine the sometimes sanctimonious Celia delivering such punishment but not receiving it – and that wouldn’t have suited young Gareth at all!
His dreams were simple – Rescuing pretty maidens then spanking them for being so foolish as to imperil themselves in the first place. And of course, his pretty damsels were always so grateful to be rescued by a real man that he would get them to submit to his firm but fair discipline in the future. A man wouldn’t mind putting up shelves and putting out the rubbish if he could turn his lover over his knee when she got a bit ‘uppity’ or neglectful he told himself. Of course he kept such musings private; hardly ‘politically correct’ he told himself sadly, although he knew enough to know that his soul mate might be out there somewhere (he’d read the sexual fantasy stuff – purely research – he was after all a sociologist! - and knew that he wasn’t alone). He was broadminded but not as brave as he liked to think. He could never resist telling his conquests and potential lovers that he was a doctor of philosophy – they were usually so impressed – and then couldn’t bring himself to suggest his deepest desires for fear of rejection, horror or ridicule. He always hoped one of his partners would suggest it; especially those ‘wenches’ that formed the camp following but it had never happened.
He did enjoy his secret life as Sir Lance-a-Lot in the chat rooms and contented himself with a cyber sex-life to enhance his more conventional couplings in the flesh. Even with his pseudonym and extra email addresses he never entered a chat room that required payment but there were plenty out there that were free; he just got good at deleting the spam emails from those eager to sell him further services in exchange for his email address.
He liked it that his chat room friends knew he was a doctor. He let them assume he was a medic. Why, if he’d concentrated at school, he might have been… He thought his pseudonym was very witty alluding as it did to the comic hospital film character and his prowess as he saw it as a pork swordsman…perhaps Gareth was not as witty as he thought he was…
He also had a soft spot for fairy tales and liked the pointy hats and laced bodices of traditional princesses and Disney illustrations. He enjoyed posting his stories and reading the stuff written by others and was thrilled when women emailed to say how much they enjoyed his tales of rescuing and spanking. When some of them hinted a willingness to take things further he got very excited but didn’t dare do anything other than practice safe cyber-sex and protected virtual-spanking.
His rather mature Little Red Riding Hood was about Sally’s age and not unlike her in looks if the picture she sent him was to be believed…And Gareth wanted to believe… Unlike Sally she was very grateful for her rescue and had no objections to being taught a lesson for her foolishness at venturing into the woods. She willingly bent over so he could raise her skirts, take down her drawers and spank her soundly. And luckily she was so overwhelmed by his charm and natural authority that she begged him to make love to her… She’d always wanted a lover who was man enough to spank her, as she deserved… When she was recovered from her spanking and his marvellous lovemaking she asked for various other offences to be taken into consideration… He could see Sally (whoops!) Little Red Riding Hood was going to need lots of tender loving care and not a little correction…Shame it was all in cyber, but somehow, he dare not meet her nor attend one of the parties organised by the site-users.