Postcards of the Past
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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