Book description
Poppy Carew has just been dumped by her unscrupulous boyfriend,
Edmund, when her beloved and eccentric father dies, leaving Poppy one
last request - that she ensure he is buried in style by a 'fun'
undertaker - and one large fortune.
Carrying out his wishes, Poppy finds not only a fun funeral parlour,
and an equally fun wake peopled with very generous old ladies who all
seem to know her father very well, but also several eligible young
men, all of whom are keen to get to know the new heiress. And when
Edmund remembers the charms that he quickly forgot in the arms of his
new lover, Venetia, there are suddenly too many choices for Poppy Carew...
Mary Wesley was born near Windsor in 1912. Her education took her to
the London School of Economics and during the War she worked in the War
Office. Although she initially fulfilled her parent's expectations in
marrying an aristocrat she then scandalised them when she divorced him
in 1945 and moved in with the great love of her life, Eric Siepmann. The
couple married in 1952, once his wife had finally been persuaded to
divorce him. She used to comment that her 'chief claim to fame is
arrested development, getting my first novel [
Jumping the Queue
] published at the age of seventy'. She went on to write a further nine
novels, three of which were adapted for television, including the
best-selling
The Camomile Lawn
. Mary Wesley was awarded the CBE in the 1995 New Year's honour list and
died in 2002.
