Mari Howard, 30 April 1949 – 7 December 2023: read a tribute from Debbie Young here.

This is how Mari introduced herself:

Some writers say ‘I always wanted to write’ and they can point to reading out to the class a story they had written, age about six. I’m not exactly — not even at all — one of those. But I did write stories, in my head, and then, they often became drawings. My stories were always drawings, and my art, as the A-level art teacher called it, ‘narrative’.

So, why write? And why fiction? Curiosity about people. The ways human beings behave, how they/we think, relate, has always fascinated me. What drives the differences, how and why do we react towards each other? So many ways… At school, why did a very pretty girl kick me under the table in class, aged 5, what need did she have? Perhaps easier to understand is the one who, in the senior school, loudly disrupted Scripture lessons by declaring her atheism: hoping that this might justify her desire not to do the homework! And why did someone, or someones, one day take some of the sandwich lunchboxes and throw the contents about among the pegs and shoe racks of the cloakroom?

Studies in social and political science are one place I’ve delved into some of this, and later in a lot of reading among writers from different cultures, political views, and religious backgrounds, both fiction and non-fiction. When the questions, and  maybe their answers, come up, there’s always debate, and I have witten (some years ago now) some articles which ended up in newsprint or magazines. The idea then formed of writing stories around some of the controversial subjects: not taking one side or the other, rather letting the story, and the characters, speak for themselves. The idea also formed around this as a fun alternative to fighting my way into journalism. Both are communication. 

Any fairly serious fiction (fairly serious — not heavy) involves filling out the writer’s knowledge and checking facts: I know writers who travel the world to set their stories in exciting places, and at least one who enjoyed a spin in a police car in the USA as part of her research and incorporated it in fiction. My research has been mainly in libraries, and in a university city there are plenty of those. Especially while taking a relevant course, and with entry by membership card.

So, the background to the stories is all of this, curiosity about the workings of human society in the 20th and 21st centuries, what we seem to want, how we try to get hold of it, whether this improves our lives or not… And of course a touch of angst and romance, and in the Mullins Family saga, all set within the context of a couple of key familes.

Back to what I otherwise do: I love gardening, walking in nature, cats, and of course my family, including three small grandkids. I enjoy photography and oil painting. I spend less time on reading than I would like, and it’s usually been serious novels by writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Kahled Hosseini, Kamila Shamsie, Patrick Gale, Sara Moss, for example. Politics (large or small) and people, really. Recently I’ve been delighted to discover the ‘feel-good’ novel, and been enjoying these lighter books: can recommend A.J. Pearce’s series set in the Second World War: ‘Dear Mrs Bird’. And Anne Booth’s ‘Small Miracles’.

As an ‘Indie writer’ Mari was a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. She participated in the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival (founded by fellow author Debbie Young, author of cosy mysteries) and held in the delightful Cotswold village of Hawkesbury Upton). She enjoyed being part of panel discussion, and also reading from her poetry book, Live, Lose, Learn, a small collection of poems on women’s lives, mostly from her own experience (also available from this website). 

PODCAST (from October 2018)

Below you’ll find podcast of an interview with Howard Lovy, a journalist with a special interest in promoting Indie authors. Learn more about the background to Mari’s books as they chat here:

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