Editing Mary Stewart (novelist) (section)

== Early life and education ==
Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow was born on 17 September 1916 in [[Sunderland]], County Durham, England, UK, daughter of Mary Edith Matthews, a primary school teacher from [[New Zealand]], and Frederick Albert Rainbow, a vicar.<ref name="mstewmn">{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1365588/Sir-Frederick-Stewart.html |title=Sir Frederick Stewart |date=17 December 2001 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090402013945/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1365588/Sir-Frederick-Stewart.html |archive-date=2 April 2009| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="mstewmnm">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9337392 |title=Mary Stewart|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |type=student encyclopedia |access-date=28 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209091336/http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9337392 |archive-date=9 February 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 

She was a bright child and attended Eden Hall boarding school in [[Penrith, Cumbria|Penrith]], Cumbria, age eight. She was bullied there and stated that this had a lasting effect on her. At ten, she won a scholarship to Skellfield School, [[Ripon]], Yorkshire, where she excelled at sport. Offered places by Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham universities, she chose Durham as it offered the largest bursary and least travel.<ref name=":1">{{Cite ODNB |title=Stewart, Sir Frederick Henry (1916–2001), geologist novelist |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-76595 |access-date=2022-08-15 |year=2009 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/76595|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |editor-last1=Upton |editor-first1=B. G. J }}</ref> 

She graduated from [[Durham University]] in 1938 with first-class honours in English, was awarded a first-class Teaching Diploma in English with Art the following year and in 1941 gained her master's degree.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=About Mary Stewart|last=Stewart|first=Mary|publisher=Musson Book Company|year=1973|location=Ontario, Canada}}</ref>