The Lady Who Called Herself Mrs MarshallThe Lady Who Called Herself Mrs Marshall

“My grandmother was Kathleen Hoggett Marshall and I must have been fifteen or sixteen when it occurred to me to doubt the veracity of the story of her life – and in particular that part of it that related to her marriage and the birth of my father, Peter Scotson Hoggett Marshall.” These are the opening lines of the preface and the reader’s introduction to the mystery at the heart of 'The Lady Who Called Herself Mrs Marshall'. Who was Peter’s father? Did his mother follow him from England to Canada or not? Do the letters she wrote to him make any sense at all? As the story follows Kathleen from her well-off childhood in the early 1900’s in Whitby, Yorkshire, to her emigrating, as a solo mother before this term had been heard of, to a very different life in New Zealand, this biography becomes a family memoir and a social history – all packed with anecdotes, memories and opinions. And as for those questions – and many others – you may or may not discover the answers, but you will find joy in life’s small things, like Kathleen’s treasures which are woven into the story, and you will find proof that there is much to celebrate in a life lived with cheerful courage in the face of adversity.