Mary Wesley was a highly successful English novelist, best known for her children's books, historical fiction, British literature, romance, and fiction novels. She became one of Britain's most successful novelists, selling more than three million copies of her books, with ten of them becoming bestsellers during the last 25 years of her life. Wesley's writing was unique and defied literary and social conventions by providing explicit descriptions about sex in her books. This distinctive style set her apart from her contemporaries and made her a talking point in British literary circles.
Two of her popular books, The Camomile Lawn and Jumping the Queue, have been adapted into TV shows. Wesley's stories often take place in the war period or the pre-war period or the West Country, and her characters mostly belong to the upper-middle class. Before publishing adult fiction, Wesley wrote three children's books, Speaking Terms and The Sixth Seal, both in 1969, and Haphazard House in 1983. Wesley's career took off when she was already in her seventies, making her a late bloomer in the literary world.
Wesley reportedly worked in MI5 during World War II, and her first adult novel was published only in 1983, when she was 71. From 1982 to 1991, she wrote and delivered seven novels, showing the focus and drive of a young person, even as she aged from 70 to 79. Her best known book, The Camomile Lawn, set on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, was turned into a television series, and is an account of the intertwining lives of three families in rural England during World War II. Some of her other popular books include Harnessing Peacocks, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, Not That Sort of Girl, Second Fiddle, A Sensible Life, A Dubious Legacy, An Imaginative Experience, and Part of the Furniture, as well as a memoir, Part of the Scenery. Wesley's writing was prolific and impressive, and she left a lasting legacy in the world of British literature.