Mary Webb - A Short Story Collection: Pioneering vegetarian author that looked at life with a pessimistic outlook

Mary Gladys Meredith was born on 25th March 1881 at Leighton Lodge in the village of Leighton, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

Mary was home-schooled by her father before being sent to a finishing school in Southport in 1895. Her longs walks in the countryside helped her develop a heightened sense of observation and description, of both people and places, which later infused both her poetry and prose.

When she was 20 she developed symptoms of Graves' disease, a thyroid disorder that caused bu...