[1] Mary Margaret Brenchley was born on 17 June 1924, to a printing company director.
She attended Milton Mount College then Royal Holloway, University of London, studying French and English.
After working as a publisher's reader, an English teacher and assistant stage manager at the Hereford Theatre, she met the jockey Dick Francis at a 1945 wedding, and married him in 1947, making her wedding dress out of cheesecloth.
Graham Lord argued in an unauthorized biography that she was a major contributor[3][4] for his books and served as a ghostwriter.
[1][3] Dick Francis told Jean Swanson and Dean James in an interview: Mary and I worked as a team.