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Mary was
born in a 'dull little town' which grew up around the railways.
Her father worked for the railways, as did all the males
of the family on both sides. Just before she was three,
they moved to London, where her father had a job in an office
under the ground at Waterloo (which could only be reached
by a maze of subterranean passages). Just before Mary was
seven she had her appendix removed by Enid Blyton’s
husband. At primary school she wrote plays which her friends
performed.
When she passed the 11+, Mary went on to
a scholarship to an independent girls' school in Dulwich
— which was a big culture shock.
In 1964 Mary went up to Cambridge (Newnham
College) to read English Literature and in 1968—70
took a diploma in linguistics at University College London.
In 1970 she started writing her first book, which as published
in 1975 as White Magic. Since then, she has written about
eighty books for children, but the Stravaganza series' City
of Masks is the longest since the first (which was incidentally
set in Italy).
Mary got married in 1972 to Stephen Barber,
who is half Indian and has three daughters. The eldest one,
Rhiannon Lassiter, is a published writer of Science Fiction/Fantasy.
The second (Rebecca) is training to be an actor, and the
third (Jessica) is an art student in Brighton.
They moved from London to a big old converted
barn in West Oxfordshire in early 2001 and most of City
of Masks was written in Mary's lovely new study there, which
is green and white, with French windows onto the garden,
a silver mask on the notice board and a vase of peacock
feathers in the fireplace.
Mary has just finished the Stravaganza:
City of Masks' sequel, City of Stars inspired by a terracotta
tile of a flying horse, bought in Siena, and a shield featuring
the ram of the Valdimontone district of that city, where
the Palio horse race is held twice each summer.
Meantime, Mary attends Italian literature
classes each week in Oxford, produces four issues of the
children's book review magazine Armadillo every year, reads
voraciously and plays with her Burmese cat, Kichri, a little
red, who is her most devoted companion and has adapted well
to life in the country (an Aga helps!).
Profile
supplied by Bloomsbury. Last updated April 2003.
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