The big day is here at last! It is Mary Stewart Day because today would have been the writer’s 101st birthday: she was born on 17 September 1916, and died on 9 May 2014.

I hope that you will enjoy today’s posts and help to make this blog a space to celebrate Mary Stewart’s life and writing. Please join in the conversation, I would love to hear your thoughts, opinions, reviews, critiques, memories of the first time you read one of her books, favourite quotes, or anything else that you would like to share. Let’s chat on social media too, I’m using the hashtag #MaryStewartDay on twitter but I don’t have facebook. We could even try chatting to people about Mary Stewart IRL (in real life)! Let’s have fun.

To start the ball rolling, I’m going to link to a wonderful post written especially for Mary Stewart Day. It is by writer Linda Borromeo, whose great website I urge you all to explore, and in this post Linda writes vividly about reading Mary Stewart for the first time, as well as about a special meeting with a butterfly: click on the link to read Butterflies, Orange Blossoms and Mary Stewart.

Later this morning I will post a brilliant mother and daughter review of The Ivy Tree, so please do look out for that.

If anyone else wants me to link to a Mary Stewart post they have written, just let me know.

Whatever you have to say about Mary Stewart, I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Happy Mary Stewart Day!