Mariana (Dickens novel)

The title is a reference to the poem of the same name by Alfred, Lord Tennyson The novel starts with an adult Mary spending a weekend in an isolated cottage on the Essex marshes during World War II.

She hears on the radio that her husband's ship has been sunk with many many lives lost, her phone line was dead and it was too late to travel back to her home in London that night, where she dreaded a telegram may be waiting so she resolves to leave first thing the following morning.

Her mother having moved to a house near Sloane Square, Mary then spends a year at a Drama College but she soon realises that she was not destined to be an actress and her time ends with disaster at the Summer examinations when she turns her performance into burlesque and is asked to leave.

Whilst chauffeuring for one of the shop's best customers she meets Sam, an architect and falls in love again, this time leading to marriage.

Mary, the next day, takes a bus to a post-office where there is a working phone, to call London and discover whether her husband is still alive; the novel ends before resolving this question.