Mary Ryllis Clark is a writer and historian who moved to Melbourne from the UK in 1974. She taught European History at Loreto Mandeville Hall in 1975 before returning to England for three years. During that time she published her first book, Crown of a Thousand Years. She and her family came back to Melbourne in 1980 and have lived here ever since. Mary went back to teaching at Mandeville Hall before going back to writing, her first love. She is the author of several books including; In Trust: The First Forty Years of the National Trust in Victoria 1956-1996, Timbertop – Celebrating 50 Years and Loreto in Australia. From 1992 to 2005 she wrote ‘Historic Victoria’ - a fortnightly column in The Age. Her latest book is Turning Points: 25 Remarkable Australians and the Moments that Changed Their Lives. Mary lives in a converted factory in Fitzroy and has three children, Nico, Margery and Quentin.