Doodlebugs and Threesomes

Friday 20 November 2009



Razor-sharp mind, filthy mouth, fabulous writer.
What's not to love?

About 15 years ago I was working in magazine publishing in London, an industry and time period not noted for its enlightenment. The token girl, I was also I was the freak who occasionally eschewed lunchtime pub sessions to go to the Royal Academy or fossick about on Charing Cross Road for old books. Pub conversation generally meandered along the lines of who was sleeping with whom and how pissed you'd got with the Saatchi's guy at lunch at L'Escargot. So it surprised and delighted me to join the chaps one day and discover them raving about The Camomile Lawn, which was being serialised on telly. Written by Mary Wesley, who had her first book published at the great age of seventy, it's one of my favourites. Read it. Better yet, get the DVD and see why some boys with expense accounts were glued to it. You'll get the gorgeous Jennifer Ehle, in wartime London, using a Bakelite phone naked in the bath, smoking her head off.

The author, rather surprisingly for one of her ilk, was a most unconventional lady. Related to the Duke of Wellington, she married first to Lord Swinfen, who bored her silly. The war was her liberation. She worked for MI5, breaking codes and having a great series of glorious love affairs, at one time with two brothers, and putting two manicured fingers up at convention. The theme of death's imminence as a sexual liberator runs through many of her novels, as does the idea of taking twins to bed. Years before Hugh Heffner made it trendy. Her lovers were usually intelligent and foreign - she told her biographer 'God! When I think of the time I've wasted going to bed with old Etonians.' In 1944 she married her adored Eric Siepmann and they lived in bohemian poverty until he died. She then finally got published, filling her lucky readers' lives with colourful, caustic characters. Her deep love of London, Cornwall and Devon winds through her tales of those who choose less ordinary lives.

Mary was as tough as old boots and drop-dead elegant. She was also a very private lady; she was interviewed for the Telegraph and decided she rather liked the young journalist, agreeing for him to write her biography on the understanding it would only be published after her death. It is a cracking read: scandal, illegitimacy, betrayal, family feuds. Her books are great - just the ticket for anyone stumped for Christmas present ideas for a slightly sulky fifteen year old girl. Save the DVD for a bloke who has yet to grow into his £1500 suit.

12 comments:

  1. Sounds wonderful! I added her to my list of authors to read. I'm ready for something full of scandal. It's nice to have some easy reads around during the holidays.

    Thanks for the information!

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  2. Thank you for directing me to some fantastic looking reads. And your vocabulary is inspiring!

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  3. Once again fascinating!Thank you for the comment about my grandson, I must post a photo of my other little man.

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  4. Gail, in northern California20 November 2009 at 23:29

    Not only did I recently learn about The Book Depository UK but, thanks to you, I just placed an order for two copies of "Wild Mary". Should be a big hit with my sister-in-law, who could also, ahem, write a book.

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  5. I'm on it. I haven't read anything worth reading in a long time. I've been using the light stuff for escape and sleep. This/these sound just like the tick for the first part. Love scandalous women. What would the world be without them?

    I'll save my next remark for off-the-record.

    Tishx

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  6. Dammit! I've got un-read books piled up to the rafters and you tempt me with another author I've never heard of...
    Nothing left to do but re-kindle that affair with the twins who work at the Public Library!!!

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  7. I love Mary Wesley too, my favourite is probably Jumping the Queue. That she was 71 when her first adult novel was published continues to inspire me as much as her explanation for stopping at the age of 84 was that she felt she had nothing left to say. All that she did say was shrewd, sagacious, elegant and often poignant.

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  8. I adore her books and throughly enjoyed the TV adaption of Camomille lawn - I still cannot look at guinea pigs in the right light. They shall ever be Hors d'oeuve!

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  9. Love Mary Wesley - so fascinating to learn more about her life though and most definitely looking forward to reading her biography. (on the Christmas list it goes!) 'Harnessing Peacocks' is one of my absolute favourites by her too....

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  10. bohemian poverty ....thanks for that! I now have my strategy defined. Just ordered the biography-generally don't like to read a bio before I read some of the work but the juicy bits will entertain me before I read anything she wrote.

    Onward.

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  11. Thanks for the Camomile Lawn reminder---have read about it, but haven't seen yet. Recently watched Cazelets and A Dance to the Music of Time---need my BBC DVD fix. Also interested in that biography of Mary Wesley...my bookshelves are two deep w/English fiction of early 20th C and between-the-wars but no Mary Wesley, so glad for the introduction. Concur w/ADG re: bohemian poverty as theme for life narrative...sounds like more fun than shabby gentility. Enjoying your blog immensely, per recommendation of ADG.

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  12. Wonderful Blog! I have just discovered it.
    I remember Mary Wesley's Chamomile Lawn and Jumping the Queue. I must get my hands on that biography. How sad bohemian poverty sounds, the Bloomsbury Group comes to mind and it all seems fashionable.

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Please leave a comment if you can be remotely bothered - anything you have to say is valuable and I absolutely love hearing from you all. Elizabeth