Mary Mackay was born on the 1st May 1855 in London.

At the age of 11 she was sent to a Parisian convent to further her education and returned to Britain four years later in 1870.

She began her career as a musician, giving piano recitals under the pseudonym of 'Marie Corelli' which she now also used as she turned to life as a writer. She published her first novel in 1866. From that point until World War I her popularity and sales exceeded those of Arthur Conan Doyle, H G Wells, and Rudyard Kipling, although she also faced criticism from the literary elite for her melodramatic writing. She was also fairly prolific; in total she wrote some 30 novels and short story collections.

A recurring theme in Corelli's books is her attempt to reconcile Christianity with reincarnation, astral projection as well as other mystical ideas that she was drawn too. She was also closely associated with the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis; a Rosicrucian and mystical organisation.

Corelli spent her final years in Stratford-upon-Avon and fought hard to preserve its 17th-century buildings. She was also somewhat eccentric boating on the Avon in a gondola, complete with gondolier, whom she had brought over from Venice.

For over forty years, Corelli lived with her devoted companion, Bertha Vyver.

During World War I she was convicted of food hoarding which shocked her paying public. From that point she wrote little and sold little.

Marie Corelli died in Stratford on the 21st April 1924. Later her beloved Bertha was buried alongside her.