Background
Born in Gosport, Hampshire, to Thomas South, a researcher into the history of spirituality, she assisted and collaborated with her father from her youth.
Born in Gosport, Hampshire, to Thomas South, a researcher into the history of spirituality, she assisted and collaborated with her father from her youth.
Mary Anne married the Anglican Reverend Alban Thomas Atwood in 1859, and moved to his parish near Thirsk in North Yorkshire where she spent the rest of her life. She continued private correspondence with several influential Theosophists until her death in 1910. Her final words, "I cannot find my centre of gravity."
She is buried at Leake Church, in Yorkshire.
A Suggestive Inquiry was reissued in 1918 under Mary Anne"s married name, with an appendix containing her table talk and memorabilia, and with an extensive biographical and philosophical introduction by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst.
The writer Lindsay Clarke used the story of Thomas South and Mary Anne Atwood as a basis for his novel The Chymical Wedding (1989). The book A Suggestive Inquiry.. was being read by Pink in the music video for the single U + Ur Hand.
