About the Author
I'm a local author, living in Headington. I have published three novels and several short stories and my particular interest is writing about ordinary people in extraordinary times.
This results in a genre of historical fiction, but the history is fairly recent ( ie 20th century ).
I am the new members' secretary for Oxia and happy to welcome new or prospective members.
My more recent interests are in writing short stories, flash fiction and prose/poetry.
I am also a recently joined member of Writers in Oxford.
Another Mother's Child Historical
By Mary McClarey
OXIA Bookstore price – 799
The story begins in rural Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century, where young Ellen Clancey is in trouble. Resourceful, brave and determined, she manages to turn something which could have been a disaster into a lifelong challenge. Her action...Show more
The story begins in rural Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century, where young Ellen Clancey is in trouble. Resourceful, brave and determined, she manages to turn something which could have been a disaster into a lifelong challenge. Her actions take her from her home at Lahana, near Derryleague in West Cork to a new life in America.
Lizzie is her great-great-granddaughter. A city girl living a liberated twenty-first century lifestyle, she is tasked with uncovering the secrets surrounding Ellen’s life. In the process of discovery she develops a deeper compassion and understanding of her own family.
Long Road, Many Turnings Historical
By Mary McClarey
OXIA Bookstore price – 799
Long Road, Many Turnings is a family saga spanning four generations. It is a book for anyone who ever wanted to trace their ancestry and discover how their family really lived throughout the first half of the 20th Century.
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Long Road, Many Turnings is a family saga spanning four generations. It is a book for anyone who ever wanted to trace their ancestry and discover how their family really lived throughout the first half of the 20th Century.
Although this is a work of fiction,Mary has retold her own family story here, achieving a mixture of drama, humour and historical events. Exploring scandal, heartbreak and danger through interrelated characters – we are introduced to Roisin and Deirdre in 1907, Kitty and William between the wars, then Ellen and Eddie experience WWII on opposite sides of the UK before the enigmatic Agnes brings the family together in 1951. This book immerses the reader in life across Ireland, both north and south, London and Wales.
Those chapters which include the Second World War deliver storylines focusing on very different aspects–childhood evacuation to Wales and lorry driving for the American Army in Northern Ireland, illustrating war’s unexpected impact on everyday life. Of course, the chapters depicting the post and interwar years were also fascinating, as they were times which had their own challenges. Each character’s story intriguingly slips into the background of the next thus the readers are constantly provided with fresh themes and new characters.
Time for a Change Historical
By Mary McClarey
OXIA Bookstore price – 799
Set in Belfast and Derry during a period often known as ‘The Troubles’, Mary focussed this novel on a group of young nurses who are trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times. They find their experiences inevitably, relentlessly, involv...Show more
Set in Belfast and Derry during a period often known as ‘The Troubles’, Mary focussed this novel on a group of young nurses who are trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times. They find their experiences inevitably, relentlessly, involved in the civil unrest. Because Mary was a student nurse, general nurse and then midwife in a large teaching hospital in Belfast, between 1968 and 1973 and subsequently worked as a health visitor, in Derry City between 1978-81 she has been able to base the background on some of her experiences although the stories and characters are fiction.
The main character Teresa McCann and her friends Eileen, Caroline and Sue are changed by the circumstances surrounding them, coming face to face with terrorists, soldiers and riots in their everyday working lives.
Other characters play their part in influencing the lives of the friends with both humour and aggression, love and betrayal. The story offers an insight into the changes which were taking place in Northern Ireland which were so very different from the ‘swinging sixties’ enjoyed elsewhere.
The gripping headline of the Belfast Telegraph, quoted in the opening sentence ‘Troops into Belfast, thousands disembark, armed with bayonets’ gives an indication of the flavour of this novel, but it is so much more than a depiction of the civil unrest. It is the seldom-told story of young people who are neither heroic nor political. But they are caring, compassionate and, when required to be, very brave. It was an extraordinary period of British/Irish history and is being told from the perspective of young people, with humour and compassion.
