[2] In the 1920s Coventry grew to be the centre of UK motor industry, and her family moved to the thriving city when her father, who had been forced give up farming as a result of the Great Depression, found a job in motorcar engineering at the Rootes car factory.

Throughout her childhood, Mary Turnbull led a happy but simple life despite having to live with different relatives during the Great Depression, while her parents were both looking for work in Coventry and being evacuated several times during World War II.

[2] After graduation from Bedford College, Mary Turnbull worked for Imperial Chemical Industries in the staff training department.

Mary Turnbull continued to write, and travel around Britain, Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand and on occasions, visited Singapore and Malaysia.

[citation needed] On the afternoon of 5 September 2008, she was diagnosed with a serious heart condition during a routine check-up and died hours later of a ruptured aorta while awaiting surgery.