Mary Queen of Bees

A novel written in the imagined words of Mary Wesley about hardship in the early 18th century England.

Mary’s mother Susanna gave birth to 19 children with 10 surviving. Her father was a minister who ended up in debtor’s prison, because he could not provide for his family on his wages. A house rule was no child was to cry after turning one-year old. Mary became cripple as child, during an accidental fall, yet received no sympathy from her family. This was the house so crowded that love could not grow, only survival. Mary died while giving birth at 37 years of age, yet her determined spirit lives on.