Mary Mackie

Mary Mackie (née Kathleen Mary Whitlam, born early 1940s) is an English writer of over 70 fiction and non-fiction books since 1971. Her work has been translated into twenty languages. She is well known for her light-hearted accounts of life looking after a country house for the National Trust.

Life

Born in Lincoln during the Second World War,[1] Mary was the daughter of Charles William Edward Whitlam,[2] and lived in Carholme Road. She was educated at St Faith's Primary and Junior School and Lincoln Christ's Hospital High School, but left the latter at 16 with six "0" levels,[3] and worked for a time as an accounts clerk.[4] Early in her marriage to the RAF airman Christopher Mackie, the family spent some time stationed in West Germany, where she began to write in 1971.

Mary Mackie now lives at Heacham near Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast of England. Her husband had been evacuated there during the Second World War, at the age of 10 and they returned in 1990. The couple had two sons and four grandchildren. Mary Mackie continues to write.[5] Her husband, a keen archaeologist, was associated since its inception in 1996 with the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. Mackie's biography of him, Chris, appeared in 2013. He died in August 2014.[5][6]

Work

Mary Mackie's books Cobwebs and Cream Teas (1990), Dry Rot and Daffodils (1994) and Frogspawn and Floor Polish (2003) are light-hearted accounts of life in the North Norfolk National Trust property Felbrigg Hall, where her husband was houseman (administrator) for seven years up to 1990.[7]

Another non-fiction book of hers that attracted notice was The Prince's Thorn (2008), about Louisa Mary Cresswell (1830–1916), whose autobiographical Eighteen Years on Sandringham Estate by "The Lady Farmer" (1887)[8] was bitterly critical of Edward, Prince of Wales and his circle.[9]

Having written a commissioned history of Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service entitled Sky Wards (2001 revised edition Wards in the Sky, 2014), Mary Mackie wrote a short illustrated book for the Highlanders' Museum in Ardersier, Scotland, entitled Hunstanton's Highland Heroes.[10] It tells how soldiers of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders were headquartered in Hunstanton while training for active service in 1915.[11][12]

Mackie's historical novel The People of the Horse (1987), about Queen Boudicca of the Iceni, was translated into Czech and Hungarian. Three set in Victorian Norfolk were Sandringham Rose (1992), A Child of Secrets (1993) and The Clouded Land (1994).[13]

Some of her earlier romantic novels were written under the pseudonyms Cathy Christopher, Alex Andrews, Cathy Charles and Caroline Charles.[13]

References

1. Hachette Australia website. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
2. Dedication in Cobwebs and Cream Teas. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
3. Linkin. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
4. "About the Author" in a reissue of Cobwebs and Cream Teas (London: Hachette UK, 2013). Retrieved 23 November 2013.
5. ; blog site. . Retrieved 19 November 2013.
7. Hachette site.
8. British Library Catalogue entry: Retrieved 18 February 2014. Cresswell had already written two other non-controversial books: Norfolk and the Squires, Clergy, Farmers and Labourers, etc. (1875) and How the Farming in Great Britain Can Be Made to Pay (2nd e. 1881). An earlier account of the scandal was by David Skene Duff: Whisper Louise. Edward VII and Mrs Cresswell (1974).
9. Publisher's site. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
10. Hunstanton's Highland Heroes: West Norfolk 1915 (King's Lynn: Morningside Publishers, 2018. ISBN 0-95759-782-7.
11. The Highlanders' Museum Retrieved 7 September 2018
12. Bookseller's details Retrieved 7 September 2018.
13. . Retrieved 18 August 2014.

External sources

• US article: Retrieved 19 November 2013.
• A review of Cobwebs and Cream Teas: Retrieved 19 November 2013.