Mary & Mr Eliot: A Sort of Love Story

‘Completely fascinating, revelatory . . . A classic of its kind.’ — William Boyd

‘Compelling . . . compulsive.’ — Margaret Drabble, New Statesman

In 1938 T.S. Eliot struck up a friendship with Mary Trevelyan, a passionately curious woman and intrepid traveller. Their relationship was cosy and domestic — characterised by churchgoing, record-playing, day trips with Mary at the wheel or Eliot in his rolled shirt-sleeves cooking up sausages for dinner. Over the years, Mary came to believe that their friendship might lead to something more … but their journey together did not end as she would have hoped.

Trevelyan left a unique document — of diaries, letters and pictures — charting their twenty-year-long relationship in her vivid prose. Erica Wagner has brought this untold story together for the first time. Mary and Mr Eliot is a revelatory tale of joy, misunderstanding and betrayal that feels utterly modern and deeply human.

You can see me in conversation about Mary and Mr Eliot with Adam Mars-Jones right here…

‘Heartbreaking and wonderfully told.’ — Susan Hill, Spectator

‘This pitch-perfect portrait of the singular friendship between two remarkable people is an absolute joy.’ — Sarah Waters