Mary Staley, a teacher during the 1920s, had many privileges in life, including teaching children whose families battled along against insurmountable odds and, from a friendship with Maude Coates, becoming acquainted with Sir Albert (Bertie) Coates and Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, two of Australia's heroic POW doctors who worked on the Burma-Thailand railway during World War II.

The stories which appear under her name were recorded by her daughter, Eileen Watson (herself an author here) and transcribed for the Great Australian Story.