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Mary Wesley (Mary Aline Siepmann (née Farmer))

(1919-2002), Writer

Sitter in 2 portraits
Born in Surrey, Mary Farmer lacked a formal education and aged eighteen, went to work as a volunteer in a London soup kitchen. During the Second World War she was recruited into a code-breaking section of MI5. In 1952 she married her second husband Eric Otto Siepmann, moving to Dartmoor to devote time to writing. However, it was not until 1983 that Wesley's first novel, Jumping the Queue, was published. Nine more best-selling novels followed, including The Camomile Lawn (1984), Harnessing Peacocks (1985) and A Dubious Legacy (1992), in which themes of wartime, dysfunctional families and women struggling for independence reoccur. Wesley was appointed a CBE in 1995.

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Mary Wesley (Mary Aline Siepmann (née Farmer))

by Lord Snowdon
gelatin silver print, 9 January 1995
NPG P1934

Mary Wesley (Mary Aline Siepmann (née Farmer))

by Kim Sayer
archival inkjet print, September 2001
NPG x127358

Related People

Eric Siepmann (husband)

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Mary Wesley (Mary Aline Siepmann (née Farmer))