Her father William Parker, a Church of England clergyman, was rector of St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate.

There Mary Martin was involved in the church and in the work of the recently founded Girls' Friendly Society.

[citation needed] Her book, Our Maoris, was published posthumously in 1884 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[3] It debuted at the Concert Chamber at the Auckland Town Hall in July 2011 and has been performed internationally, including at Theatre Row in New York City in 2013 and at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

I wanted to be confident that we served her well; that she would jump out of her diaries and on to the stage as a fun, motivated and highly able person who rose to any challenge.