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1859-1925
Novelist; born in Hodnet , the daughter of Hugh Cholmondeley the rector. The Cholmondeleys were an old Shropshire family and several had been rectors of Hodnet. Her paternal grandmother inherited Hodnet Hall and in her autobiography Under one roof (1917) she tells of how the formidable old lady, when travelling by the new-fangled train, insisted on her own carriage being lifted onto a railway wagon so that she could travel in privacy. Reginald Heber the poet and hymn writer was another ancestor of the Cholmondeleys.
Mary was the eldest daughter and third child in a family of eight and from an early age had made up stories to tell to her brothers and sisters for their entertainment. She began to write seriously in her late teens and her first novel was Her evil genius which was followed by The Danvers jewels (1886). A shy girl, she nevertheless mixed in literary circles in London after achieving some success with her novels. In 1896 her father had to give up his living in Hodnet through ill health so the family moved in the first instance to Condover Hall which they had inherited from Reginald Cholmondeley (who had hosted the visits of Mark Twain). They stayed here only a few months before selling up and moving to London.
In 1899 Mary's best known novel Red pottage was published and caused something of a sensation at the time because of its pointed satire. In addition to novels Mary wrote essays, articles and short stories.
Mary Cholmondeley was the aunt of Stella Benson (1892-1933).
From An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire by Gordon Dickins, published by Shropshire Libraries, 1987. © Gordon Dickins, 1987.
The following works are available in the West Midlands Creative Literature Collection :-
Diana Tempest
(1893)
Moth and rust
(1912)
Notwithstanding
(1913)
Prisoners (1906)
Red pottage (1899)
Sir Charles Danvers (1889)
A sample chapter and the complete text of the following are available on this website.
The complete text of Red pottage is available from the Victorian Women Writers Project pages on the University of Indiana website.
Page created 2 September 2001 and last
updated 9 August 2005
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