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| Marie Corelli |
| Marie Corelli was born Mary Mackay, the daughter of Charles Mackay, a Scottish poet and song-writer. She became a talented pianist in her early years and adopted the pseudonym of Marie Corelli. Later she turned to writing romantic fiction. She moved to Stratford in 1901 and bought Mason's Croft where she lived for many years. She became a bit of a local legend in the town with her colourful life-style. My grandparents often told me about her and her gondola in which she could regularly be seen on the river. The postcards of her on this website have come down to me from my grandparents - like the old theatre fire postcards, many Stratford people seem to have collected them. Many of her books are in print - see the Amazon link at the bottom of this page if you would like to sample her work. One more point - old Stratford people will know that her name was always pronounced "Marry", not "Maree" ! |
| Below are two photographs, sent to us by Richard Le Gallais, of Marie Corelli's pony being attended to by a blacksmith. Richard is trying to identify the blacksmith, as his father-in-law's father, Harold Furby, (incidentally the father of an old school-friend of mine at KES), used to work for the blacksmith. As far as I can ascertain, the nearest forge to Marie's house would have been on Sheep Street, which is where my grandfather, Fred Jones, had his business. This would have been the logical place for Marie to send her pony to be shod and thus the blacksmith in the photos may well have been my grandfather's predecessor at the Sheep Street premises, which I used to frequent as a child in the 1940s. My grandfather died in 1947. If you can identify the blacksmith, please contact us !! |
| Listen to Dia's CD, and while you are listening, please sign our Guest Book - we appreciate suggestions, corrections and constructive criticism - or just say "Hello" and tell us where you are from ! |
| Thanks ! Now buy the CD :-) ! |
| Follow this link to read about Marie Corelli, Fred Winter and the row about the Public Library in Henley Street |