1. Mary Gladys Webb was an English romance novelist and poet of the early 20th century, whose work is set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and people whom she knew.
13 Facts About Mary Webb
1. 2.
Mary Webb's novels have been successfully dramatized, most notably the film Gone to Earth in 1950 by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger based on the novel of the same title.
3.
Mary Webb was born Mary Gladys Meredith in 1881 at Leighton Lodge in the Shropshire village of Leighton, where she was baptised at St Mary's parish church, 8 miles southeast of Shrewsbury.
4.
Mary Webb was taught by her father, then sent to a finishing school for girls at Southport in 1895.
5.
Mary Webb became a vegetarian as a child and loathed the slaughter of animals.
6.
Mary Webb's parents moved the family again in Shropshire, north to Stanton upon Hine Heath in 1896, before settling in 1902 at Meole Brace, now on the outskirts of Shrewsbury.
7.
Mary Webb is considered to have created a fictional counterpart in the disfiguring harelip of Prue Sarn, the heroine of Precious Bane.
8.
Mary Webb's first published writing was a five-verse poem, written on hearing news of the Shrewsbury rail accident in October 1907.
9.
On 12 June 1912, Mary Webb married Henry Bertram Law Mary Webb, a teacher, at Meole Brace's Holy Trinity parish church.
10.
Mary Webb was buried in Shrewsbury, at the General Cemetery in Longden Road.
11.
Mary Webb's writing in general was reviewed as notable for poetic descriptions of nature.
12.
The museum at the Tourist Information Centre in Much Wenlock includes much information on Mary Webb, including a display of photographs of the filming of her novel Gone to Earth in 1950.
13.
Three of Mary Webb's novels have been reprinted by Virago Press.